Mattel has admitted that most of the toys recalled in recent safety scares had "design flaws" and that Chinese manufacturers were not to blame. During talks in Beijing, a senior Mattel executive apologised for the damage that the incidents had done to the reputation of Chinese-made goods. The recall of more than 20 million toys led some in the US to call for limits on the number of Chinese imports. This followed other product scares over Chinese food, toothpaste and tyres. 'Full responsibility' Until now, Chinese sub-contractors have borne the brunt of criticism over the recall of Mattel products over concerns about their excessive levels of lead paint. The boss of one Mattel supplier was reported as having killed himself last month after toys his firm made forthe US company's Fisher-Price subsidiary were among those recalled. Chinese media reported that Zhang Shuhong, co-owner of the Lee Der Toy Company, had been found hanged in one of his factories. Several firms have been fired, and Mattel has introduced mandatory audits on products coming out of Asia as well as tougher testing procedures. "The vast majority of these products that we recalled were the result of a flaw in Mattel's design" - Thomas Debrowski, Mattel But Thomas Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president for worldwide operations, said on Friday that the firm should shoulder the burden of responsibility for the safety breaches. "Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologises personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys," he told Li Changjiang, head of China's product quality watchdog. "It is important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of these products that we recalled were the result of a flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers." He added that Mattel now believed it had recalled more products than was justified and that items which may have met US safety standards had been taken off the shelves. Mr Li said this admission was "unacceptable", adding that "you cannot recall 10,000 products just because one is sub-standard". Co-operation However, he pledged to work with Mattel, which generates much of its profit in China, to ensure similar problems did not happen again. "This shows that our co-operation is in the interests of Mattel," he said. "I really hope that Mattel can learn lessons and gain experience from these incidents." Mattel has apologised to its customers on several occasions for the lapses, but also denied that it was slow to reveal safety concerns. US legislators criticised Mattel earlier this month for the safety scares, with one Senator saying the problem "should not be happening in the US". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7006599.stm
Okay, but Mattel is only responsible for THAT particular product's flaw, what about other unsafe goods exported from China? And also, I think it is NECESSARY for Mattel to take the flaw so that they can continue on producing their goods in China (keeping the production cost LOW) and gain profit from sales. If US and the EU starts a boycott on exported goods from China, Mattel would suffer considerable loss in sales (since production in other places would cost MORE than in China) So I don't buy that AT ALL...
yes there were other unsafe products from china but mattels recal were some of the biggest, we are talking about a few tens of millions of toys. Mattel made the headline a few times, cause they recalled one after another US and EU would never boycott goods from China cause that would devastate the economies of each country, plus out of all the exports of china only a minority of them are actually unsafe, the problem is they just get very high media coverage the only way US and EU would boycott is if China did something really bad as a whole or a majority of goods are sub-standard/unsafe So for this particular case i take Mattels word for it
Okay, maybe not exactly BOYCOTT goods from China, but apply a certain Quality Assurance test for each batch of good imported from China? It would translate to higher cost to manufacturers already = not favourable... Rather take the fall and mend the broken fence before all the sheep ran off... Way before it got caught and attracted major media coverage, China is KNOWN to cut corners...
^you may have a point this takes the piss, this again has nothing to do with china, yet it has to be titled US firm recalls China-made cots. Anyone skim reading the headlines will just think oh china again has made shoddy goods.... When actually its a design flaw....
damn right man all ppl know that the designs are all done in the US and the chinese were the ones who r just manufacture them
nah I think they bent under pressure...if they mattel made such a scene out of it b4; by not being able to conduct business in china they will lose a lot of money
