"Is the government doing enough?"

This is the promo I heard for a news story on the latest toy recall by Mattel. I immediately thought: is MATTEL doing enough? It's NO secret to American companies that Chinese imports have issues, especially not at this late date. Should our government do more - absolutely! But what are these COMPANIES, the ones making a FORTUNE bringing in cheap products from China, doing to protect American consumers? These companies always say they're "rigorously" testing what they're importing, but the fact that Mattel is recalling 9 MILLION items makes that statement rather questionable. As this report from CNN makes clear - Mattel knows exactly what's being produced in China:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/14/recall/index.html

Mattel CEO: 'Rigorous standards' after massive toy recall

BETHESDA, Maryland (CNN) -- The CEO of Mattel Inc. insisted Tuesday that his company has "rigorous standards" and apologized as the company was forced to recall millions of toys for the second time in two weeks. The toys were manufactured in China.

The recall, which was announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, affects about 9.5 million toys in the United States, and 11 million in foreign countries.

It is the largest in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under scrutiny worldwide for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.

"I'm disappointed, I'm upset, but I can ensure your viewers that we are doing everything we can about the situation," Eckert said. "Every production batch of toys is being tested, and we'll continue to enforce the highest quality standards in the industry."

. . .
A spokesman with China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said Mattel "should improve its product design and supervision over product quality," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "Chinese original equipment manufacturers were doing the job just as importers requested, and the toys conformed with the U.S. regulations and standards at the time of the production."