(BRUSSELS) - The EU and China on Monday signed a deal to improve consumer safety amid continuing health fears over Chinese products imported into Europe.

Chinese toys, which have been a particular area of concern in recent years, are still not always up to the highest safety standards, EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said after a meeting with Chinese and US officials on product safety.

"There are still product recalls," she added, citing cases of Chinese furniture, clothes, shoes and electrical products as well as toys pulled from international markets due to health and safety concerns.

Under the new agreement, China will be obliged to inform the European Union about what it is doing to track down dangerous goods.

The deal also allows for officials from the EU and China to carry out coordinated checks on producers to ensure safety standards are being met.

The agreement "substantially strengthens the systems of safety controls for product and food safety between the EU and China," said Kuneva.

"It provides for more transparency, better monitoring and new possibilities for joint surveillance."

As the flow of goods increases and supply chains become ever more complex, "it is clear that closer cooperation between Europe, China and the US is not just a desirable luxury but a real necessity," she said.

The tripartite meeting on product safety was the first of its kind, with Kuneva hosting Wei Chuanzhong, vice-minister in China's quality supervision and inspection administration (AQSIQ) and Chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission Nancy Nord.

The idea of such a three-way approach to the consumer issue was first mooted last year amid a string of problems with "Made in China" goods, with the focus on unsafe Chinese goods in the toy sector.

Tens of millions of Chinese-made toys were recalled amid concern they could be dangerous, in what became a new flashpoint in trade relations between the Asian economic giant and Europe and the United States.

China is the world's biggest toy exporter, with total sales of 60 billion toys in 2006, amounting to 60 percent of the world market.

In September, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao vowed to ensure the "Made in China" brand was safe for consumers at home and abroad, as Beijing scrambled to restore confidence amid a toxic milk scandal.

Nord stressed that the toy market was a particular area of concern as the products "are destined for the most vulnerable sector of the population; children, and their safety will not allow for any half-measures".

The Chinese representative said her country took the matter very seriously.

"From the conception phase, companies must be in close consultation with the manufacturers, so as to respect the criteria," said Wei.

Chinese products ranging from pet food to pharmaceuticals have also recently sparked safety fears.

• EU - US - China summit on product safety - briefing
  

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