(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-06 14:36

WASHINGTON -- The world still trusts the quality of China's products despite a string of recalls in recent months, a senior Chinese official said Monday.

"During the first eight months of this year, China's exports expanded by 23.3 percent, which shows that our exports were not influenced by these recalls," said Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

"The world still trusts the good quality of China's products," he told reporters at a press conference held in the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C.. Some Chinese manufacturers said they had received even more orders and their workers are busy with fulfilling the orders.

Wei, who arrived here last weekend for talks with his US counterparts, also stressed that the Chinese government had beefed up measures to secure product safety.

A certain number of toys recalled in the US could be attributed to real quality and safety problems, but the majority of the recalls were due to a gap in safety standards between China and US or design failures, he said.

In the wake of a series of recalls, US toy giant Mattel, which recalled some 22 million Chinese toys this year, made a formal apology to China, admitting the vast majority of recalls were due to design flaws.