August 04, 2007
Vancouver Sun
By Darah Hansen
Trudi Beutel would prefer to live without so much personal reliance on food and goods produced in China.
She is concerned about human rights abuses associated with some Chinese manufacturers, such as the recent case of children and men found enslaved at a brick factory in Shanxi province .
News of the recent execution of Zheng Xiaoyu -- the former head of China's state food and drug administration, who was earlier convicted of taking bribes to approve hundreds of medicines, some of which proved dangerous -- makes her question the safety of some of the China-made products on her kitchen and bathroom shelves.
And, on a more immediate level, she says many of the "made in China" goods available in North America break or fall apart too easily, causing her to wonder whether it isn't worth paying more for higher-quality items.
"Low-cost items are typically produced in China," says the Vancouver resident. "Nothing is manufactured with longevity in mind."
But banishing China -- or at least that country's consumer goods and foods -- from the average North American home takes some serious effort, given that China is the second-largest source, after the U.S., of imports into Canada, and the very pregnant working mother of a 19-month-old daughter is just not up for the challenge right now.
"Not with baby No. 2 arriving in a matter of three weeks," she says. "See I'm one of those people. I say these things (about the importance of being a more conscientious consumer), but I'm not willing to do anything about it."
A check of the labels on common household goods -- from children's toys and electrical appliances to birthday candles and bedroom curtains -- in Beutel's home shows a huge reliance on made-in-China items, with appliances, electronics, high-tech equipment and children's clothing mainly coming from that country.
"I think people like to think of themselves as self-reliant when it comes to our (consumer) choices when, in fact, that is really just a thing of the past," says Sara Bongiorni, whose book A Year Without "Made in China" is hitting Canadian bookstores.
China and the consumer goods it produces are frequently in the news these days, often for all the wrong reasons.
According to a recent New York Times article, Chinese exporters sold nearly
$1 trillion worth of goods overseas last year, making it the second-largest exporter in the world, behind Germany.
A series of health scandals has increasingly drawn the world's attention, from mislabelled chemicals in cough syrup that killed at least 80 people in Panama, to toxic toothpaste and tainted pet food, lead-based toys and faulty lighters and matches.
"This government is really having a hard time controlling a runaway market that is extremely competitive," says Wenran Jiang, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, who nonetheless warns against sensationalizing the problem. "Most Chinese products are still safe."
About 95 per cent of the toys and dolls in Beutel's home bear a Made in China stamp, including a stuffed Disney Tigger the Tiger, the popular Groovy Girl dolls, a plastic beach ball, even a Dr. Seuss book.
A wind-up puppy dating back to Beutel's own childhood was one of the few toys in the pile produced outside China.
"I got this when I was two," she says. "And, back then, it was made in Japan ... Still, it worked for 39 years."
In the grown-up world, China was the source of more than half the electrical appliances and high-tech equipment in the house, as well as curtains, decorative pillows and photo frames.
The numbers reflect, though in many cases exceed, Industry Canada statistics tracking Chinese imports in the same categories, including toys and games (about 60 per cent), shoes, boots and slippers (about 80 per cent) and cordless phones (57 per cent).
Like so many other consumers, Beutel doesn't always check labels when she's out shopping. She buys what she needs based on style, price and convenience, not place of manufacture.
Questions around an item's safety arise mainly when she considers toys for her daughter, and even then it's not a matter of where the item was made, but rather if there are any pieces that could cause the little girl harm.
"You could not live an ordinary life
without buying things from China," says author Bongiorni, a conclusion drawn form her year-long ban on goods from China.
It was an experiment, she says, born out of Christmas 2004 when a quick sort of gifts into two stacks -- labelled China and non-China -- made her realize just how much she and her husband Jim and their three children had come to rely on Chinese exports.
"It wasn't about being protectionist," she says. "It was just an impromptu decision, based more on a question of 'Is it still possible to live without China'" The answer, she concluded, is no.
Bongiorni says shopping excursions that had once been routine became gruelling, often weeks-long excursions that required military-like planning and precision to pull off.
Birthday candles for the top of her children's cakes became a thing of the past. A lot of money was shelled out on Danish-made Lego. And she spent $70 U.S. on Italian-made loafers for her then-four-
year-old son to replace the cheap sneakers he'd outgrown. "I bought them two
sizes too big to try to balance the cost," she says.
As for replacing an old telephone, coffee maker, blender and toaster, forget it, Bongiorni says. "For so many things, China is your only option."
To get around that, she says, "You'd have to be willing to devote your entire life (to finding alternatives). It would be all-consuming."
Peter Nemetz, professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, says there is no need for Canadian consumers to actively avoid purchasing products from China.
"If you do that, you're shooting yourself in the foot," Nemetz says.
Reciting what he calls "standard economic theory," he says that, on the whole, when two countries trade with each other, both are better off.
"In this case, in China they have an opportunity for employment. In Canada, we have an opportunity to buy goods that are less expensive."
He says safety concerns about Chinese imports are as much the responsibility of the Canadian government as China's.
"It's a lot more difficult in a developing country like China to maintain the same levels of hygiene that we are used
to in North America. Having said that, I think it is incumbent upon us and our regulatory agencies to exercise a little more scrutiny."
Already, Nemetz says, China seems to be tightening up its regulatory systems.
"And, in fact, it is in their self-interest
to do so, because if Europe and North America start saying, 'We don't want to take any of your products because we think they are contaminated,' the Chinese are going to lose billions of dollars in export trade."
Vancouver Sun
By Darah Hansen
Trudi Beutel would prefer to live without so much personal reliance on food and goods produced in China.
She is concerned about human rights abuses associated with some Chinese manufacturers, such as the recent case of children and men found enslaved at a brick factory in Shanxi province .
News of the recent execution of Zheng Xiaoyu -- the former head of China's state food and drug administration, who was earlier convicted of taking bribes to approve hundreds of medicines, some of which proved dangerous -- makes her question the safety of some of the China-made products on her kitchen and bathroom shelves.
And, on a more immediate level, she says many of the "made in China" goods available in North America break or fall apart too easily, causing her to wonder whether it isn't worth paying more for higher-quality items.
"Low-cost items are typically produced in China," says the Vancouver resident. "Nothing is manufactured with longevity in mind."
But banishing China -- or at least that country's consumer goods and foods -- from the average North American home takes some serious effort, given that China is the second-largest source, after the U.S., of imports into Canada, and the very pregnant working mother of a 19-month-old daughter is just not up for the challenge right now.
"Not with baby No. 2 arriving in a matter of three weeks," she says. "See I'm one of those people. I say these things (about the importance of being a more conscientious consumer), but I'm not willing to do anything about it."
A check of the labels on common household goods -- from children's toys and electrical appliances to birthday candles and bedroom curtains -- in Beutel's home shows a huge reliance on made-in-China items, with appliances, electronics, high-tech equipment and children's clothing mainly coming from that country.
"I think people like to think of themselves as self-reliant when it comes to our (consumer) choices when, in fact, that is really just a thing of the past," says Sara Bongiorni, whose book A Year Without "Made in China" is hitting Canadian bookstores.
China and the consumer goods it produces are frequently in the news these days, often for all the wrong reasons.
According to a recent New York Times article, Chinese exporters sold nearly
$1 trillion worth of goods overseas last year, making it the second-largest exporter in the world, behind Germany.
A series of health scandals has increasingly drawn the world's attention, from mislabelled chemicals in cough syrup that killed at least 80 people in Panama, to toxic toothpaste and tainted pet food, lead-based toys and faulty lighters and matches.
"This government is really having a hard time controlling a runaway market that is extremely competitive," says Wenran Jiang, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, who nonetheless warns against sensationalizing the problem. "Most Chinese products are still safe."
About 95 per cent of the toys and dolls in Beutel's home bear a Made in China stamp, including a stuffed Disney Tigger the Tiger, the popular Groovy Girl dolls, a plastic beach ball, even a Dr. Seuss book.
A wind-up puppy dating back to Beutel's own childhood was one of the few toys in the pile produced outside China.
"I got this when I was two," she says. "And, back then, it was made in Japan ... Still, it worked for 39 years."
In the grown-up world, China was the source of more than half the electrical appliances and high-tech equipment in the house, as well as curtains, decorative pillows and photo frames.
The numbers reflect, though in many cases exceed, Industry Canada statistics tracking Chinese imports in the same categories, including toys and games (about 60 per cent), shoes, boots and slippers (about 80 per cent) and cordless phones (57 per cent).
Like so many other consumers, Beutel doesn't always check labels when she's out shopping. She buys what she needs based on style, price and convenience, not place of manufacture.
Questions around an item's safety arise mainly when she considers toys for her daughter, and even then it's not a matter of where the item was made, but rather if there are any pieces that could cause the little girl harm.
"You could not live an ordinary life
without buying things from China," says author Bongiorni, a conclusion drawn form her year-long ban on goods from China.
It was an experiment, she says, born out of Christmas 2004 when a quick sort of gifts into two stacks -- labelled China and non-China -- made her realize just how much she and her husband Jim and their three children had come to rely on Chinese exports.
"It wasn't about being protectionist," she says. "It was just an impromptu decision, based more on a question of 'Is it still possible to live without China'" The answer, she concluded, is no.
Bongiorni says shopping excursions that had once been routine became gruelling, often weeks-long excursions that required military-like planning and precision to pull off.
Birthday candles for the top of her children's cakes became a thing of the past. A lot of money was shelled out on Danish-made Lego. And she spent $70 U.S. on Italian-made loafers for her then-four-
year-old son to replace the cheap sneakers he'd outgrown. "I bought them two
sizes too big to try to balance the cost," she says.
As for replacing an old telephone, coffee maker, blender and toaster, forget it, Bongiorni says. "For so many things, China is your only option."
To get around that, she says, "You'd have to be willing to devote your entire life (to finding alternatives). It would be all-consuming."
Peter Nemetz, professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, says there is no need for Canadian consumers to actively avoid purchasing products from China.
"If you do that, you're shooting yourself in the foot," Nemetz says.
Reciting what he calls "standard economic theory," he says that, on the whole, when two countries trade with each other, both are better off.
"In this case, in China they have an opportunity for employment. In Canada, we have an opportunity to buy goods that are less expensive."
He says safety concerns about Chinese imports are as much the responsibility of the Canadian government as China's.
"It's a lot more difficult in a developing country like China to maintain the same levels of hygiene that we are used
to in North America. Having said that, I think it is incumbent upon us and our regulatory agencies to exercise a little more scrutiny."
Already, Nemetz says, China seems to be tightening up its regulatory systems.
"And, in fact, it is in their self-interest
to do so, because if Europe and North America start saying, 'We don't want to take any of your products because we think they are contaminated,' the Chinese are going to lose billions of dollars in export trade."