Chinese products are confronting more setbacks in the US. After some toothpaste and toys imported from China were found defective, another safety issue has been raised over tires produced by a Chinese manufacturer. As usual, the Chinese company involved in the issue, according to the Wall Street Journal, has been defending itself:
The Chinese tire maker at the center of a recall storm in the U.S. defended the quality of its products and said a decision by its American distributor to warn U.S. federal regulators of alleged safety flaws was an effort to gain leverage in a commercial dispute between the two companies.
The confrontational response by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. — China’s second-biggest manufacturer of tires by output and a large exporter — comes amid a spate of safety problems involving Chinese-made products.
It also highlights the difficulties that can be expected as governments and courts deal with consumer-safety issues that cross borders. In this case, the result could be a collision between two very different legal systems: the common-law U.S. approach to product liability, and Communist China’s state-directed judiciary.
