Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), a US-based product safety group, announced that Chinese product standards were improving, and the recognition of such standards would help decrease economic protectionism:
Keith Williams, UL’s chief executive, told Reuters that China’s product safety regulatory regime was improving, while the growth of Chinese brands globally was also raising awareness of the importance of product safety…”People are clearly concerned about protectionism,” said Williams. “What we do facilitates trade and protects reputable manufacturers,” he said…
Food safety demands likely will cause trade tensions with China, which is both a top market for U.S. food exports and a growing supplier to the United States, Rosa DeLauro, a U.S. lawmaker, said last week.
About a quarter of UL’s global workforce of 6,800 is based in China — not including significant staffing in Taiwan and Hong Kong — due to its emergence as a global manufacturing center.
See past CDT posts on food and product safety.
