China blames toy design

A DESIGN fault was mostly to blame for US toy giant Mattel’s recall of millions of products, not the Chinese manufacturers, China’s chief safety watchdog said yesterday.

Li Changjiang also saidChinese factories were in the clear over the alleged discovery of a dangerous formaldehyde chemical in clothing sold in New Zealand, as he sought to reassure the world over the “Made in China” label.

Some 85% of the roughly 20 million toys that Mattelrecalled were due to design faults, Li said.

Only 15% were deemed unsafe due to Chinese manufacturers using dangerous lead in the paint, he added.

Mattel said when it announced the recalls this month that there were concerns about small magnets in some of the toys and lead in the paint on the others.

Li insisted the bad publicity over the dangerous products was having little impact on China’s exporters.