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Published on August 18, 2007

Thailand echoed health concerns being voiced worldwide concerning made-in-China products on Thursday when the Public Health Ministry issued a warning urging consumers to think twice before buying food imported from China. The ministry, citing findings from laboratory tests on over 11,000 randomly selected imported Chinese foodstuffs over the past four years, said most of the products contained high levels of harmful chemicals that could cause cancer or otherwise pose a serious health threat.

The Public Health Ministry said the influx of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as preserved food products that has flooded Thai markets since the implementation of the "early harvest" part of the Thai-Chinese Free Trade Area, is a cause for alarm.

According to the ministry, many of these imported Chinese products were found to contain excessive amounts of pesticides, dangerous preservatives, colouring agents, bio-organisms or toxins as well as heavy metals, exceeding levels allowed under Thai law.

The Public Health Ministry said that it and other government authorities would step up efforts to monitor, screen and ban food products imported from China that are found to fall short of Thailand's food-safety standards in order to protect Thai consumers from potential health hazards. In the meantime, consumers are urged to exercise caution when considering the purchase of imported Chinese products.

China has always grappled with concerns over shoddy quality and product contamination that has caused public health concerns within its own borders. It is now feeling the pinch after a series of health scares broke out in the United States and several other Western countries that import large amounts of Chinese products, many of which have been found to pose potential health risks.

At a time when China is being seen increasingly as the world's factory, such incidents, which put the international spotlight on the perception that some Chinese products are of a low quality, is particularly damaging to the country's image as well as to its international trade.

Such incidents are being treated as a matter of the utmost importance by the Chinese government. Beijing has already cracked down on corrupt government officials and unscrupulous entrepreneurs. As is the case in most developing countries, including Thailand, corruption continues to be a major problem and it will take a long time for it to be brought down to a manageable level.

But China, which is widely seen as the world's emerging economic and political superpower, is under pressure to prove to the international community that the rise in its clout is commensurate with its ability to continually raise the standard of living of its own citizens.

To be fair, although many imported Chinese products have been found to fall short of internationally accepted standards, there are many others that have been widely recognised as being among the world's most competitively priced, quality products, which are popular with consumers around the world.

Beijing must have realised by now that the only way to make sure the standards of its products can be consistently monitored and verified is for it to raise its domestic standards to a level widely accepted by the international community.

Since 2004, the Thai government has had a campaign in place to improve food safety after health authorities realised that the lack of food safety in the country was resulting in an unacceptable cost to the country's public health system. Fruit and vegetables laced with insecticides, meat contaminated with harmful residue from livestock pharmaceuticals, preserved food tainted with germs and microbes and seafood loaded with heavy metals must be outlawed.

Thailand has found that as one of the world's major food exporters, imposing the same high standards on domestic and international markets makes sense because it also helps improve its credibility as a food exporter. It will take many years of perseverance on the part of the Thai government to realise that lofty goal and along the way Thai society must also struggle hard to eliminate corruption. But Thailand is making progress.

Perhaps China should consider similar programmes, as it is in its own national interest to do so.