The Chinese government said yesterday that new safety standards, not local manufacturers, are to blame for the massive Mattel recall of potentially hazardous lead-coated China-made toys last week, the Financial Times reported. Mattel said that the 18.2 million recall of its 63 product types was a safety measure following its decision to tighten its own standards in the products it sold from January. However, a commerce ministry official did say that "even if only 1% of products have quality problems, we will seek to establish the facts and … punish those companies involved." The safety concerns over Chinese-made toys have been the most high-profile in a series of product safety problems this year, raising questions about whether the country's low-cost exports industry.
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