Should the US start taking control of imports from China?

Round 1
revleader5: "Considering that they do. When the US sends in faulty or problematic items to China. They charge the US and don't accept it. They'll put limits, stop that trade area. Why doesn't the US do the same thing?"

vohne: "Hello revleader5 :)

It is hard to see your argument clearly in your opening, are you saying that current Chinese polcy is to not accept faulty exports and at the same time ask the US to pay? Please clear up charge as there is some ambiguity(duality) in its use. Also, by the use of the word limits, do you mean quotas? Because the Chinese government has no quotas on any of their imports, there are however quotas on their exports (esp. textile) from both the EU and the US.

The topic of the debate could be: 1.) Should the US start imposing tarrifs and quotas on imports from China? 2.) Should the US start inspecting import cargo from China

If it is the 2nd one, then I would just like to point out that every country does inspect imports and exports to other countries, in the US it is the US customs who handles this."

Round 2
revleader5: "Well vohne,

I think you understood the question, but you're just trying to undermine me. you didn't say anything about Foreign Import Policy in your arguement. Clever.

In argument to...whatever you said. The US needs to start charging China when they send us faulty items. Hundreds of pets die. Children get diseased from plastic toys. China walks away happily with their money. Who knows what is going on inside of the factories. Is it possible that they'll do it again to save money? They could, and just walk away saying "oopsie". The US needs to take action. Charges need to be made against the companies. Stop accepting the imports. This is where we find out what's more important to IAMS and other companies affected by China's multiple product mistakes. Money or lives? Obviously there are other pet food brands and toys. So they will eventually either shut down or choose lives if this problem persists. Currently, it's proving to persist. The US doesn't need to stand for these problem filled products. We have other companies where we can get almost as cheap labor. If not that, bring it on back the great old USA. The problem is, the US can't stay old with their policy. Stop imports from these companies if they ever make a mistake which costs another life. Whether it's a person, dog, cat, or pet. We need to penalize them. Or much more uh-ohs are going to happen. When the uh-ohs happen, China will put on a big sad face, while under the table they're feeling the money in their pockets."

vohne: "Sorry if I came across as trying to undermine your argument, I just needed some clarification.

Firstly, it would be unjustified if the US charges China for the faults of Chinese companies. China's economy is a market economy already, the companies you are talking about are private companies. Being private companies, you must deal with them as private entities seperate from the state in the same way that you would deal with a US company found of exporting rotten goods. There are no laws in China against suing these companies, so why not sue them? Well, Mattel and Mattel's CEO personally apologized to China, http://biz.yahoo.com... why? because they realised that because they had loose safety standards this happened, if they had prohibited lead in the first place, then they wouldn't need to have recalled all those products. All of the other case studies as well have their own reasons for not filling charges, but nevertheless, they are free and open to do so.

You also cannot blame China as a whole for bad exports, China cannot check its billions worth of exports, the US customs can only check "1% of its food imports" given their size. (http://www.cbsnews.com...). Furthermore, out of its 1000 billion dollar export industry, an estimate of only 1% is faulty and unsafe, so are Chinese exports really that bad?

Secondly, in your argument, you are committing a fallacy called appeal to emotion when you say "happily with their money", China, or the companies, do not walk happily away with their money. It caused a great deal of negative publicity, and workers in the factories feared losing their jobs, it caused so much trouble that Zhang Shuhong, co-owner of the Lee Der Toy Company, the factory producing toys for Mattel committed suicide.

Chinese exports as a whole do not get away with just an "oopsie". There are numerous bans on those companies that have shipped faulty products. There are more people conscious about the quality of China's goods today that they "boycott buying". (http://musingsofabittergirl.wordpress.com...)

Internally, China has banned both melamine for pet food products and lead for children's toy products. China has revoked the license for 764 toy factories, SEVEN HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR, and another sixty toy plants were asked to renovate their facilities or face shut down. The US congress is currently drafting legislation for the imposition of tariffs against Chinese exports. Even the EU considers placing some bans and tariffs against Chinese exports. In July 2007, China executed a man, Zheng Xiaoyu, who was the head of its food and drug agency. So no, sir, I believe that Chinese companies do not walk away scott-free in this.

There are some exports from different countries too that are deadly, Canada is a great exporter of Aesbetos worldwide, including the US. "Every hour, another American dies from asbestos-related cancers." (http://www.washingtonpost.com...) even the US exported bad products recently to China, a shipment of dates filled with maggots. There are recalls happening everyday, just unreported ones, check these sites out:

http://www.recalls.gov.au... http://www.cpsc.gov...

The recalls are as bad or sometimes worse than Chinese product recalls. Baby beds that are built badly? No not from China, from Australia. These are private firms we are talking about, not governments, it is wrong to single out governments especially when they are taking action, like China is doing now."