Europe urges 100 percent safe exports from China

BEIJING, July 23 (Reuters) Europe urged China today to ensure that exports met European standards amid a series of scares about Chinese products ranging from toothpaste to tyres.

European Union Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said she saw some improvement in how China handled EU warnings of faulty or substandard goods, but much more was needed to satisfy European expectations.

''Yes, there is an improvement but also it's equally valid that there is need of more step-up of the reforms on the market and on the market surveillance,'' she told reporters after meeting Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Kuneva said even a 1 per cent rejection rate was ''still dangerous for European consumers and also for Chinese as well''.

Too often Chinese authorities failed to follow up on EU notifications of problems with consumer electronics, toys, vehicle parts and other exported goods, Kuneva said today after arriving in Beijing.

The EU official's five-day visit comes as worry about defective Chinese goods sweeps the United States and is threatening to spread in Europe.

The deaths of patients in Panama from mislabelled drug ingredients, deadly toxins in pet food and food laced with additives and antibiotics have fanned public anxiety globally about the safety of China's surging exports.

Europe's reaction so far has generally been milder than that of the United States, where lawmakers have demanded tough action that China calls protectionist.

Li signalled that he preferred Brussels' approach.

''I am happy and pleased that the competent authorities and the media in the EU have taken quite an objective and sober attitude toward this issue,'' he said at the start of his meeting with the EU officials.

Earlier this month, Spain withdrew two leading brands of Chinese-made toothpaste because of a risk to public health.

The EU said last month it was increasing controls on Chinese food imports after the United States said it would not allow imports of some Chinese seafood until suppliers proved shipments were free from harmful residues.

Under the EU rapid alert system for non-food products, known as RAPEX, 48 per cent of all products notified as unsafe in 2006 came from China compared with 5 per cent from Germany, the next highest country of origin.

REUTERS SKB SSC1344