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China and other Southeast Asian countries agreed to increase product standards.
Good. Less people will die. That's what the headline of the
linked article says. But what does "increase" mean? And
what is a "product standard?"
The announcement came from a multilateral meeting of Southeast Asian
countries. Why do they need multilateral meetings to do
this? They should do it on their own. Indeed China is
famous for saying "its an internal matter" when asked to do something.
Very
specific words get very squishy meanings among government folks,
especially when you are translating Mandarin Chinese to English.
“The ministers agreed to urge relevant government agencies to
properly deal with product quality-related cases by strengthening
consultations with the view to protecting the safety and health of
consumers while not impeding bilateral trade and economic cooperation,”
it said. (emphasis mine).
"Urge." Southeast Asian governments are either communist or capitalist dictatorships. They don't "urge" anything.
They
will "urge" their agencies to "strengthen consultations."
OK. What consultations and why? "With a view" to protecting
safety. BUT "not impeding bilateral trade."
Ahh. Don't interfere with trade, even if a bit of antifreeze
chemicals are in a few shiploads of toothpaste.
And their heart really does not seem to be in it. Consider this comment, in the same article.
China’s commerce minister, Bo Xilai, defended the quality of
Chinese goods, saying 99 percent of his country’s exports to the United
States and Japan passed quality controls and adhered to global quality
standards.
Hmmm. Recall that "99%" is about the percentage of Chinese imports that our FDA does NOT inspect.
Do
you know anybody that speaks many words but says nothing? That
seems to be what happened in the multi-lateral government
meeting. But it hit the New York Times, with a headline ("China agrees to raise product standards") that is misleading.
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