Germany launched an initiative Thursday against defective and dangerous products in the wake of US toy giant Mattel's recall of 18 million Chinese-made products over safety concerns.
The economy ministry said it planned to host a round-table discussion on the subject on August 30 with manufacturers, industry groups, consumer protection organisations and the 16 regional states. It said in a statement that although the European Union sets high standards for product quality, more needed to be done to guarantee the norms are respected. It suggested a quality seal verifying products are safe.
"Labelling to indicate the quality (of a product) is in the most basic interest of the German economy," the ministry said. "German products in particular but also European products with high quality standards must compete on the market every day against much more cheaply produced products - for example from Asia."
Toys including the mythical Barbie doll and Batman action figures were yanked from store shelves last week as Mattel vastly expanded an earlier recall, sparked when three children suffered perforated intestines after swallowing magnets that had fallen out of the playthings.
Two US toy companies on Wednesday recalled more than 300,000 Chinese-made toys, saying they contain potentially dangerous levels of lead, while two other companies also recalled nearly 22,000 pieces of children's jewellery, saying they, too, contained excessive lead levels.