EU Commissioner Kuneva Pushes Product Safety in China

EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva traveled to China this week to address product safety concerns, including EU-China cooperation on market surveillance and rapid alert systems. China accounts for a major portion of EU imports of consumer products and also half of the notifications of dangerous products generated by the EU's RAPEX alert system.

Noting that the EU and China have decided to step up prevention, reaction, and enforcement efforts to curb consumer safety problems, Commissioner Kuneva said, "There was a very positive and results-oriented approach in all my meetings…. [But] goodwill must be followed by actions…. There can be no compromise on consumer safety." The Commissioner noted that a full review of EU-China consumer safety issues will precede the EU-China Summit in November. Europe is China's largest export market and China's biggest trade partner, and Chinese exports to Europe increased by 25 percent in the first quarter of 2007.

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