The Mattel Toy Recall

An explanation from EU Consultant, Margot Parker

Mattel, the US toy company, has recalled 21 million toys recently, due to excessive levels of lead paint and some design faults. This story not only had terrible consequences for the company but it severely damaged the ‘made in China’ concept of quality.

A meeting was held with China’s quality control chief, Li Changjiang, and Mattel’s executive vice president, Thomas Debrowski, and it was not an easy one. The meeting ended with apologies from the Mattel chief to his customers and a damage limitation exercise to China’s manufacturing reputation, culminating in the announcement of Mattel’s commitment to continued manufacturing in China and the opening of a 30 million dollar super Barbie store in Shanghai.

The EU is also conducting an extensive review of safety manufacturing procedures in China, with the results to be made available at the EU-China summit which will be held in late November 2007.

Further information at www.euractive.com

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