By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
As the explosively spreading ``Made in China'' labels _ often implied as cheap in both price and quality _ have lately been blackballed on the global marketplace with its low-grade life-threatening goods, local consumers question their safety and wonder: Is it possible to live without Chinese made products?
``It's hard to be free from Chinese imports _ our everyday dining table is filled with them,'' said a researcher at the food imports division of the Korean Food & Drug Administration (KFDA), adding that agricultural goods are the top items brought in from the neighboring country. ``But this should be a relief because many of the problems come from finished goods.''
Consumers in the U.S. were recently exposed to danger as toothpaste with poison, tires falling apart on the road and contaminated seafood have been selling in their stores.
To this, politicians, consumer activists and interest groups have campaigned against the delinquent labels freely expanding on the market _ and the argument is growing louder.
But in Korea, although numerous safety issues were brought up, the situation isn't so severe, says the researcher of the nation's food and drug watchdog.
``It seems as though there's more emotion involved between the U.S. and China,'' he said. ``Also, we're not directly faced with poisonous toothpaste threatening our lives.''
Local consumers have seen their own share of problems, however, as imported frozen eel and blue crab were found to contain dangerous levels of dioxin last year, along with recent concerns over bottom quality canned beef-rib soup and rice being used in restaurants.
Imported iron rods, children's snacks and cell phones are among many other wide-ranging items that have been caught or recalled for unacceptable quality.
``Although we've seen safety issues, the two countries are working toward eliminating those problems together by strengthening inspections and other measures,'' he said, calling for more efforts to be made by the Chinese central government, instead of provincial ones. ``Because recent concerns are damaging the image of their goods, we're expecting that the government will take more aggressive action.''
And such moves are noticeable as the Chinese government admitted last week that nearly 20 percent of its homegrown items have poor quality.
``China and Korea will soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to ease the inspection process and open more communication channels,'' said the Chinese imports expert. ``Afterwards, these problems will naturally diminish as the biggest exporting country realizes how crucial safety and image is on the global market.''
In the meantime, many worldwide consumers are realizing that it's growing impossible to live without buying a piece of China.
A U.S.-based author Sara Bongiorni released a book, ``A Year Without `Made in China': One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy,'' which concludes that, with cheap and ubiquitous Chinese goods everywhere, ``there's no way you can live anywhere near a normal life without buying things from China.''