Official: China knew about magnets

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China knew about problems with magnets on toys as long ago as March, an industry official said on Wednesday, following a second massive recall of Chinese-made Mattel toys due to hazards from small, powerful magnets.

1 of 2 Mattel Inc. the largest U.S. toy company, recalled millions more Chinese-made toys on Tuesday due to hazards from the magnets and lead paint, and warned it may recall additional products as it steps up testing.

"We knew about the situation, because since March some toys had been recalled due to magnetic-parts problems," an official with the China Toy Association, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

The new recall involves about 18.2 million magnetic toys globally, including 9.5 million in the United States.

Like U.S. manufacturers never poison people.

Wow, ever the China-defender, eh?

You say you DON'T make any income, directly or indirectly, from the China trade?

OK, I will accept that statement at face value, for what it's worth.

I will then speculate that they are really getting a bargain, since you are providing them the kind of ongoing defense and advocacy that they SHOULD by all rights be paying for. Bigtime.

What's that old saw about the definitions of a so-and-so who gives it away for free, versus a so-and-so who charges for it?

So your factory has just spent a year producing 18 million toys and shipped them and now here they are all back at your shipping dock. That’s 18 million toys piled up in the front yard and no customers. The profit margin has to suck right then.

Dollars to donuts (forgive the oldhickism, I'm a neo-hick, and feeing it in my used-up bones this fine morning), the profit margin won't suffer that much, for two reasons.

First, the cost of production is likely absurdly cheap, due to the wonders of slave labor.

Second, I doubt those things will spend that much time on the loading dock. I will NOT be surprised if they end up being relabeled, re-certified as "lead-free", and resold, to some two-bit (possibly Chinese-owned) importer, who will sell them to a bunch of small "mom and pop" stores (rather than national chains with a high profile).

Look at the obstacles encountered in trying to backtrace the origin of the poisons in the pet and human food they sold us. China is expert at burying that kind of evidence via shuttling product from pillar to post before zinging it across the seas.

They may even decide to play it safe, and sell it to third world markets, where such things as chemical composition and physical risk are quite possibly going to take a back seat to things like appearance and price.

Bottom line, I'll be really surprised of those things end up in a landfill.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.