Imported

PINOY KASI

Imported
By Michael Tan

Inquirer
Last updated 02:46am (Mla time) 06/29/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- A few months ago, I wrote about the need for the Philippines to be more vigilant about imports from China. Since then, there has been a number of exposés and scandals that raise even more questions about the safety of such imports.

Just yesterday, the Chinese government closed down 180 food factories after their inspectors found that industrial chemicals -- formaldehyde, illegal dyes, industrial wax -- were being used to make candies, pickles, crackers and seafood products. Formaldehyde and its derivative formalin are preservatives used, for example, on textiles (which makes your eyes water when you go to a textiles shop). Formalin is also used in embalming.

Yes, I did note the macabre metaphors, linking Chinese exports to death. This is not an exaggeration. Note some of the other recent incidents:

This week, the US government ordered a New Jersey importer to recall 450,000 radial tires used for pickup trucks, sports utility vehicles and vans. The tires had come in from China and lacked a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating. The tires were being sold in the United States under the brand names Westlake, Compass, Telluride and YKS.

In April, pet food ingredients sent from China to the United States were found contaminated, causing the deaths of several animals. The following month, three states in America banned catfish imports from China because they were found to have been fed an unauthorized antibiotic. (The Americans are careful about these antibiotics in human food because these can cause antibiotic resistance.)

In Panama, more than 100 people died last year after consuming cough syrup laced with diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical. The same chemical has also been found in Chinese toothpaste, prompting Australia, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua to ban such imports.

The Chinese government is responding, aware of the growing backlash against their products. In May, they actually sentenced to death Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of their food and drug safety agency, for corruption. Zheng was an executive of a pharmaceutical firm before he became the first director of the food and drug safety agency. He headed the agency from 1998 to 2005, and was convicted for accepting bribes from pharmaceutical companies, but during his administration, there were numerous other scandals involving food and drug safety.

With all these exposés, we need to be checking on our own imports. They do not necessarily have to come in directly from China; some of these products may even come in through the United States considering how so many “stateside” goods are now actually made in China.

Questioning imports

Certainly, unsafe imports aren’t limited to China. They can come from one of many of our other trading partners, including the United States and other developed countries. One recent example was the problem of rusty infant formula tin cans from Wyeth, a large American multinational. Wyeth had to recall thousands of these products. (If you were away the last week, do look up the last few days’ newspapers, where the serial numbers of the cans were published in full-page ads paid by Wyeth.)

In 2000, Firestone had to recall millions of tires that had the same problem as the Chinese tires being recalled now. Firestone’s tires were linked to increased risks of rollover of light trucks and sports utility vehicles with some 271 documented deaths and hundreds more injured before the tires were recalled.

When you get down to brass tacks, our vulnerabilities go back to the way we look at imports. Anything imported, especially from Western countries, is seen as superior to our own. We need to be more critical about these products and realize that West is not necessarily best. I’m thinking now of food supplements, touted as “natural remedies” and “herbal drugs,” with suggestions that these are completely safe. The “Made in the USA” print further glorifies these products. The fact is that food supplements are coming under greater scrutiny now in the United States because of problems of safety and efficacy.

Under current laws, these products are not subject to the strict rules applied for regular pharmaceuticals, which is why the laws in the United States (and in the Philippines since we copied the American regulations) stipulate that such products should not make any therapeutic claims. Yet I’ve actually caught local radio ads for these imported products, where they rattle off all kinds of illnesses that the supplements supposedly prevent or cure ... and then ended it all with “No Therapeutic Claims Approved”!

Given our weak regulatory environment, consumers need to be very vigilant and critical. I want to give one more example here, and this is the problem of steroids being used for weight gain and bodybuilding. Just this week, American wrestler Paul Benoit strangled to death his wife and son, before committing suicide. Steroids are suspected in this bizarre case because they can cause psychosis.

Yet steroids are easily available in the Philippines, sold even in sporting supply stores. Even in urban poor areas, men can buy steroids a few tablets a time, thinking they’re for weight gain or to put on muscles. And what’s striking is how the buyers will say, “Ay imported ’yan, Stateside,” to suggest that they’re very effective -- and safe.

The flood of Chinese imports raises another issue: People will argue that these products are priced low and therefore allow even the poor to avail of more consumer items. I will not debate the cheapness (and I mean cheap) of the products, but have two very simple questions.

First, what are these cheap imports doing to our own fledging industries? Our local industries, ironically owned by ethnic Chinese as well, have closed down, unable to compete, with some of the businessmen ending up now as importers.

Second, does cheap really mean lower costs in the long run? I’ve bought some of these products and because they break down so quickly, I’ve realized you actually end up spending more because you have to keep replacing or repairing them. Worse though are the inferior products that you might end up taking only once, the foods and medicines, with not too pleasant results. Cheap? It’s your call.

I’m hopeful that China will get its act together, partly because of pressure from outside. As more countries and governments complain, and ban its shoddy products, China will have to raise its manufacturing standards and clean up its corrupt bureaucracy. Just as “Made in Japan” moved from its shabby connotations in the 1950s to excellence today, we just might find “Made in China” meaning high quality in the future.

But even if that happens, I still hope we don’t end up continuing as mere importers of these products.