KEY POINTS:
It will be no coincidence that a Government-sponsored Buy Kiwi Made campaign begins just after a substantial drop in the dollar and a spate of adverse publicity about Chinese-made food, toys and clothing. The campaign, a pet projectof the Green Party, has been a long time in gestation and was probably held off while the high dollar made import priceslow. The Chinese problems are a bonus being eagerly exploitedby the Greens.
It is important to keep these problems in perspective. China is now the world's main centre of mass production of just about everything, and likely to remain so as its fast developing coastal regions become richer and industry moves inland for lowerpriced labour.
It is following a course already charted by neighbours such as Korea and, before it, Japan. The products of each place have been regarded as cheap and shoddy for a time until consumers get over their suspicion and acknowledge they are getting a good bargain. Cars, computers, electrical appliances from those countries have become both steadily cheaper and more reliable.
This is because low-cost production has been combined with multi-national brand marketing. Reputable brands, whether in global distribution or domestic retailing, have to watch the quality and safety of everything sold in their name. They are quick to recall products that may give problems.
The toy maker Mattel has issued two global recalls this month, mainly over excessive lead in paint. Marketers of seafood, pet food and toothpaste in the United States have also recalled products when tests found traces of forbidden chemicals. In this country the Consumer Affairs Ministry is investigating the toxicity of imported clothing after TV3's consumer programme highlighted excessive formaldehyde in Chinese-made garments.
The news from New Zealand was reported keenly on Fox News in the US as evidence that America is not alone in its current concerns with China but the US network was probably not aware of the political project in this country. Green MP Sue Bradford, designated Government spokeswoman for Buy Kiwi Made, greeted the formaldehyde concerns as advantageous to the campaign. She said at the launch, "My message today really is that to be on the safe side it would pay to Buy Kiwi Made when you can."
That sort of statement expresses exactly what is wrong with the campaign. If New Zealand manufacturers are to compete with China and other places in the modern world, they will need distinctive, prestigious branded products. They will never compete on price with a low-wage, low-cost developing country and they will not compete for very long on considerations such as product safety.
China can easily and quickly improve its safety checks and its alarm at the criticism of recent weeks suggests it will attend to it with the fearful authority still at its regime's command. Last month a former head of China's food and drug safety agency was executed after a corruption scandal.
China's response is two-pronged; while its exports overseers have begun random testing of food and electronic products and the regime has relaxed restrictions on journalists investigating manufacturing standards, it is also taking the offensive, threatening retaliatory bans on US pork that contains a growth hormone banned in China.
Nobody wins a trade war. The embarrassments China has suffered will turn out for the better if importing countries keep a sense of proportion and do not exploit them for short-sighted protection of industries that need to compete.
