China bars exports from hundreds of toy factories

China has banned more than 700 toy factories from exporting their products after a safety crackdown aimed at repairing its tarnished image turned up quality problems, state press said on Thursday.
Hundreds of other factories in southern Guangdong province, the country's toy centre, have been ordered to renovate their facilities or improve product quality following a spate of toy recalls worldwide, the China Daily said.
Of the 1,726 inspected - nearly 85 percent of Guangdong's total number of toy factories with export licences - 1,454 were found to be at fault in some way, according to the province's quality supervision administration.
It reportedly sent 200,000 officials on a province-wide inspection of all products made for the domestic and overseas markets, including medicines and foods, as well as toys. "The campaign has broken down a large number of unqualified product manufacturers and sellers. But the investigation work is a long-term task," the administration's director, Lai Tiansheng, was quoted as saying.
Because of "various quality problems", 764 toy manufacturers had their export licences suspended or revoked. Another 690 were told to renovate and improve product quality. However Lai insisted that just one percent of all Guangdong's exports did not meet safety standards, a figure Chinese officials have cited repeatedly since the "Made in China" reputation started suffering this year. China is the world's top toy exporter, selling 22 billion toys overseas last year, or 60 percent of the globe's total.
Guangdong is widely known as China's toy export base. According to the latest industry figures, the province exported 11.9 billion dollars worth of toys in 2005. However, Chinese-made products ranging from seafood to car tyres have been targeted in a spate of overseas safety recalls this year, toys in particular taking the spotlight in recent months.
In one of the highest-profile cases, US toy giant Mattel recalled 18 million toys in August, including Barbie Dolls and Batman action figures amid concern the toys had been made with toxic lead paints and magnets that posed a choking risk to children.
Mattel later apologised, saying the vast majority of those recalls were due to its own design flaws, rather than because of problems with manufacturers. US authorities on Wednesday recalled 440,000 Chinese-made toys because of high levels of lead, including 380,000 Galaxy Warriors figures and 43,000 sets of plastic disguise teeth that were to be used in Halloween costumes.