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| Presidents Hu and Kikwete |
The government of China has set up a crack squad of inspectors that has
been detailed to keep an eye on the quality of all consumer goods that are
designed for export.
This is in a quest to flush out substandard, counterfeit and fake items
that are destined for Tanzania or other countries.
The upshot is tailored to save Tanzanian and other consumers from the
losses they suffer through purchases of offensive, substandard, counterfeit and
fake goods.
This was said here
yesterday by the Deputy Director General for the Department of West Asia and
African Affairs in the Ministry of Commerce, Mr Cao Jiachang, when addressing
visiting Tanzanian journalists at a press conference.
Mr Cao was bitter that unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers collude with
greedy business people from Tanzania or other parts of the world to flood their
local markets with substandard imports that are badly fashioned or are
dangerous to health. He said that a competent team of inspectors will visit
suspected manufacturers of substandard goods and blacklist offenders.
"All factories that will be found guilty of the offence of
manufacturing substandard, counterfeit and fake goods will be closed down
immediately and their owners will be prosecuted.
It is a pity that these greedy
manufacturers flood foreign markets with very poor consumer goods. These people
ruin the economies of importing countries such as Tanzania, impoverish
consumers and even expose their health to untold risks," Mr Cao said.
Highly dangerous imports from China include substandard or fake
medicines, powder milk and electrical appliances that often start fires, to
mention just a few.
Other fake goods come in the form of building materials,
cosmetics, soaps, soft drinks, canned foods, motor vehicle or other spare
parts, tyres, paints, toys, textiles, shoes and others. The list is hard to
close. Some substandard or fake goods are known to have caused deaths.
Mr Cao said that proven Chinese culprits who export offensive and
highly dangerous goods to unsuspecting customers overseas are likely to face
heavy legal punishments. It is these people who put the lives of people
overseas at risk, hurt other nations' economies and, in the same vein, tarnish
the good image of China. They also, by extension, hurt Chinese economy by
portraying a false picture that "our export commodities are very
bad."
Mr Cao caused laughter when he said that when he was living and working
in Egypt an angry group of protesters trooped to his office and caused
quite a grim spectacle complaining that
substandard, counterfeit and fake goods manufactured in China were
impoverishing them and endangering their health. He said that the protesters'
emotion-charged complaints hurt him and made him see the stink caused by
unscrupulous Chinese exporters.
He, however, turned around and blamed import quality inspectors in
Tanzania for not helping stem the rot.
He wondered why Tanzanian inspectors do
not identify bad imports, impound them and set them on fire. He was of the view that some offensive goods
find their way into the Tanzanian consumer market because inspectors turn a
blind eye on them or allow them in through corrupt behaviour.
He called on the Tanzanian government to institute stringent laws
against importation of substandard goods with harsh sentences on proven
offenders. He was of the view that the problem may have taken root and
escalated due to laxity in implementation of laws.
The Chinese government has
discovered that it is the Tanzanian business people who go to China and ask
manufacturers to produce fake goods for their benefit.
He explained that some business people approach Chinese factory
executives and specify the quality at which the goods they need should be
pegged, often coming up with "very cheap" items that either last for
a short time or fail to work.
Others fall apart even before they reach their
export destination.
Some counterfeit goods are highly dangerous to health. These include
fake medicines, foods, drinks and cosmetics.
Mr Cao advised consumers to reject substandard, counterfeit and fake
goods in the belief that the move would force importers to shunt in better
quality items. However, experience has shown that most offensive goods look
exactly like their genuine cousins. In most cases consumers buy even the most
substandard goods in complete belief that they are the genuine brands.
Mr Cao said that the Chinese government would instruct its embassy in
Dar es Salaam to study the situation closely and advice on the best cause of
action. He said that the idea in this
regard is to ensure that the problem is rooted out.
"We will cooperate
closely with the government of Tanzania in fighting this aspect of
wrongdoing," he said. "We will not rest until the problem has been
shot down."
Source: The Daily News,http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Sosthenes Mwita in Beijing
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