Case5
Summary
This case talks about the potential danger of children’s toys such as lead
inside and other heavy metals. As a prominent toy manufacturing country, China
signed a agreement about eliminating the use of lead paint on Chinese
manufactured toys that are exported to the United States in 2007. The agreement
aims to make safe products for children. However, lead continues to be a hazard in
the U.S.
While lead in paint seems to be in focus, the use of lead in plastics has not
been banned. Lead is used to soften the plastic, make it more flexible and stabilize
molecules from heat. Although the CPSC in the U.S., the European Union, and
China’s AQSIQ are actively monitoring and seemingly enforcing stricter standards,
many toy manufacturers have been violating safety regulations for almost 30 years.
The poisoning issue is still a significant threat to children.
1
For US companies, they import goods with several concerns and they can be divided
into the following three aspects. Firstly, the bilateral economic and trade relations
between China and the United States. China’s continuous opening-up has brought
huge market opportunities to all its trading partners, including the United States.
Since the beginning of the new century, China is the main market with the fastest
growth of American exports, and at the meanwhile, China represents a significant
and influential global trading partner for the US and nearly 40% of the US’s total
imports come from China. So, it is hard for it to refuse every one of the products
from China. The citizens in the United States have already been accustomed to the
qualified and quantities of what is called made in China. Secondly, for political issues,
The United States is a country with relatively scattered political rights. Private
interest groups, public interest groups, non-governmental organizations and mass
media are all important factors influencing American political decision-making. Due
to the huge impact of the current economic slowdown on various industries, interest
groups in the United States encourage the government to adopt necessary trade
protection policies. Different parties in the government have to attract large
consortia because of political election, thus forming the interest exchange
relationship between the government and various plutocrats. Usually, voters elect
