China's product quality watchdogsaid on Friday it has been detecting
low quality imports of textile products and garments.
The conclusion came from a sample examination done by the General
Administration of Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIS) late
last year in 10 provinces and municipalities across the country.
Most of the 403 samples involved 25 countries and regions across the globe.
The items failed to pass the tests given, officials said, with the general rate
of unqualified products set at 45.7 per cent.
Major countries on the clothing blacklist include Japan, the Republic of
Korea and Italy.
Experts are appealing for the country's import and export enterprises to pay
special attention to quality and hygiene of the products to protect the nation's
consumers.
Xiong Yufang, an official with GAQSIS said the authority would enhance its
supervision and control over the import of the textile products but detailed
measures are still "in the works."
She said the findings were from a general examination of all textile imports
and she declined to name any particular brands.
Since textile products are not required to have a compulsory examination to
go through the customs before entering the Chinese market, it is difficult to
guarantee the quality.
Foreign textile businesses were not available to respond to the survey, since
most of them had still not been informed of the news on Friday.
In addition to findings about chemical indexes on the textile products,
officials said poor quality of the exterior appearance of the imported clothes
also stood out.
Serious problems also showed up on the labels of clothes. They were either
wrong in defining the clothes' quality or the labels did not include a Chinese
version.
According to the survey, none of the clothes imported from Thailand met
standards of exterior appearance and Italy's rate was 52.17 per cent.
China is the biggest textile production and export country as well as the
biggest consuming and import country.
Statistics showed that China exports US$80.5 billion in textiles and garments
last year, up 27.72 per cent over the previous year, while imports reached
US$15.6 billion.
