China on Thursday welcomed New Zealand's impartial test results on its clothing exports and expressed appreciation for its publicizing of the results.

 

A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said the test results showed clothes made in China are of liable quality. The Chinese government has attached great importance to the issue of product quality and made a series of policies to step up supervision over product quality and food safety, he said.

 

On Tuesday, the General Manager of the New Zealand Ministry of Consumer Affairs Liz MacPherson informed China's commerce counselor Liu Linlin that clothes made in China are safe after testing them for formaldehyde.

 

MacPherson said the ministry collected 100 samples of clothing and asked independent labs to carry out the tests. Of all the samples, 84 percent were manufactured in China, seven percent in New Zealand and nine percent in other countries. The proportions were decided on the basis of the market share of the clothes in New Zealand, she said.

 

Excluding one overlapping sample, 97 samples met the international standard by having a formaldehyde concentration of far less than 200 ppm. The formaldehyde concentration in 2 samples, one from China, reached 250 ppm but was reduced to 54 ppm by washing, so these two kinds of clothes should be labeled with warnings like "pre-wash before use", according to the test results.

 

MacPherson said the results proved that clothes made in China are safe and New Zealand would publicize the results to clarify the facts.

 

She also said children's pajama exports from China were safe and reminded parents in New Zealand to read the labels carefully before buying and using them.

 

In August, New Zealand launched an investigation into children's pajamas made in China after two complaints involving children who suffered burns while wearing the pajamas. The test results from an independent laboratory released by New Zealand's Commerce Commission proved that the pajamas produced in China were up to safety standards.

 

Customs statistics showed China exported 290-million-dollar worth of clothes to New Zealand in 2006, taking up 70.5 percent of the local market share. From January to August this year, the clothes China exported to New Zealand valued US$240 million, accounting for 72.5 percent of the market share.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)