HONG KONG, China,  Industry leaders at Asia's largest toy fair, held in Hong Kong last week, defended Chinese manufacturers' commitment to safety standards and reiterated that strong exports were a sign of growing consumer confidence in China-made toys, despite massive recalls last year.

Speaking at the opening of the Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair, Jeffrey Lam, chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council's Toys Advisory Committee, praised Hong Kong manufacturers for their solid reputation and quality toy manufacturing processes that had produced a 25 percent increase in exports in the first 11 months of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

Hong Kong is the world's second-largest toy exporter after mainland China -- put together, they manufacture about 75 percent of the world's toys. The toy fair attracted more than 2,000 exhibitors and connected them with more than 4,800 major buyers from around the world. However, for the thousands of visitors who came for a glimpse of the latest gadgets, toys, and games on show, the message was clear -- nothing is more important and paramount than safety.

"Hong Kong is a sourcing hub for toys to trust and toy recalls last year had a limited impact on our export performance," Lam said. "Hong Kong manufacturers are committed to product safety and exports to the U.S. and the European Union recorded 4.7 percent and 24.2 percent increases respectively," he added, while emphasizing that Christmas sales had been steady in all major export markets.

Chinese mainland officials also drummed up support for their manufacturers while downplaying the recall issues. At a seminar on product safety directives and achieving safety standards, Li Qing-xiang, deputy director of the Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, labeled the more than 1,320 toy manufacturers based in Guangdong province as having "very high quality" standards.

According to Li, "The Guangdong bureau inspected 450,000 batches of export-worthy toys between January and October last year and identified only 752 batches being substandard, which is less than 1 percent of the volume exported." This, Li says, shows that only a small number of manufacturers are erring on standards and that the state has put in place strict regulations to ensure product safety.

He said more than 90 percent of Chinese toy exports are made by a few hundred top-tier suppliers and that only a handful of export products had been found to be defective. "We have banned those companies that produce substandard products," he said.

According to Chinese state media, China's toy exports reached a staggering US$7.07 billion in the first 10 months of 2007, representing 20 percent growth over the same period the previous year, despite the fact that recalls in 2007 had dented consumer confidence in the "Made in China" label.

Exhibitors from Taiwan, South Korea, Pakistan, Thailand and more than 30 other countries also had products on offer at the fair. Most of them are forced to accept the fact that cheap Chinese toys will continue to flood their home markets, however.

Some European manufacturers complained that false certificates sometimes accompany the imports, claiming the toys have passed safety standards when in fact they have not. One company based in Spain and selling "Made in Spain" toys to Asian clients confirmed that Chinese toys were up to 30 percent cheaper than those produced in Spain.

"Chinese toys are the cheapest but not the best in terms of quality," said a representative of the company, who asked not to be identified. "In Spain, the main problem is that many Chinese toy imports get into the country even without the relevant certificates. I am not sure how they do it, but it is happening. This is the biggest problem and the biggest threat to our children."

Bernie Ting, vice chairman of the Hong Kong Toys Council, admits that such problems exist. He believes that the problems of fake certificates and other unethical business practices can only be resolved if everyone in the supply chain is adequately educated in the philosophy of safety, which is paramount to the child for whom the toy is ultimately destined.

"The whole supply chain -- the buyer, manufacturer and importing company -- needs to understand the standards, as it is dangerous if people get into the business blindly with no education on the ethics," said Ting.

Chinese manufacturers' failure to comply with safety standards, especially the use of toxic lead in toys, has resulted in recalls and triggered tighter U.S. monitoring of toy imports. Yet Carter Keithley, president of the U.S. Toy Industry Association, said: "Toys are intrinsically safe products. They do not purposely involve high-voltage electricity or dangerous chemicals or volatile fuels, as is true with many other categories of consumer products."

However, he defends the increased testing and policing by U.S. officials of Chinese toy imports. "Because the users (of toys) are children, our industry fully embraces and is quite properly held to a higher standard for assuring that these products are safe," he said.

Lawrence Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Toys Council, agrees that safety cannot be sacrificed for commercial interests. "While we are successful business people, we are also parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts. We want our toys to be educational, and we can never compromise the safety of our younger generation," he said.

It seems certain that last year's toy recalls have deeply ingrained the safety factor in the industry. After all, toy manufacturers have much more to lose than to gain by failing to invest in sustainable safety directives.