Mattel apologises to China on toy recalls

BEIJING : US toy giant Mattel issued a startling apology to China Friday, saying the vast majority of recent recalls of Chinese-made products were due to design flaws it had committed itself.
"It is very important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel, not through the manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers," said Thomas Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president of worldwide operations.
Debrowski made the remarks while meeting in Beijing with Li Changjiang, the head of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the nation's top agency in charge of product quality.
"Mattel takes full responsibility for those recalls and I would like to apologise personally to you, the Chinese people and all of the customers who received toys that have been manufactured," Debrowski told Li in front of a group of reporters.
The toy recalls have helped inflame a growing global scare about the safety of products produced in China, an issue that could potentially be damaging to the Asian export juggernaut.
"These recalls have been very, very devastating to our company. We make products for 150 countries around the world, but no one has been hurt more by the recall other than Mattel," Debrowski said. "
We understand and appreciate deeply the issues this has caused for the reputation of Chinese manufacturers," he said.
Mattel recalled around 848,000 toys earlier this month -- its third recall of Chinese-made products this summer -- due to high lead levels in the paint used.
The move came after the company last month recalled 18 million Chinese-made products worldwide over high lead levels and small magnets that have seriously injured at least three children.
China had blamed the Mattel recalls largely on design faults by the company.
Li said Friday he was pleased that Mattel had admitted that of the 21 million toy products that it recalled, 87 percent were due to design problems and only 13 percent due to the lead paint problem.
"I hope that through our common efforts and cooperation we can provide more high-quality toys for children around the world," he said. "
And I believe Chinese toys will bring joy to children from all over the world." China is handing out severe punishment to Chinese manufacturers who are responsible, Li said.
China has already made huge efforts to overhaul the toy industry, especially the export toy industry, and either suspended or revoked the licences of 300 manufacturers.
"That demonstrates that the Chinese government attached a high level of importance to safety," Li said.
"Even if only one percent of our products have problems, we will pay 100 percent attention."
China is the world's top toy exporter, selling 22 billion toys overseas last year, or 60 percent of the world's total.

<--------------Mattel 1 : 0 China => Mattel 1 : 10 China