Reflections On The Problems Of Children'S Wear

According to the statistics reported on the EU RAPEX website, 2011 clothing 423 notifications of dangerous products were issued for textiles and decoration, including 201 Chinese products of origin, 167 clothing products, 25 footwear products, 8 decorations and 1 bedding.

Among the Chinese clothing products notified in 2011, except for 5 items of chemical hazards caused by excessive azo dyes or formaldehyde content in adult clothing, the rest 162 items, about 97% of which are risk notifications of children's clothing products.

I Children's Wear The number of product notifications decreased, and the proportion increased slightly

In 2010, the EU RAPEX website released 329 notifications of clothing, textiles and decorative products from China, including 247 children's clothing, accounting for about 75% of the total number of such notifications.

Compared with 2010, the Chinese made clothing textile The total number of notifications of clothing, textiles and decorative products decreased by about 100 items, and the absolute value of the number of notifications of children's clothing decreased by 85 items, or 34.4%. However, the proportion of children's clothing in the notification of clothing, textiles and decorative products in China rose from 75% in 2010 to 80.6% in 2011, an increase of nearly 5 percentage points.

On the one hand, the reduction in the absolute number of children's clothing notifications in China benefited from the statutory inspection of 301 HS codes related to infant clothing, knitted T-shirts, swimwear, etc., which were included in the Catalogue of Entry Exit Commodities Subject to Inspection and Quarantine by Entry Exit Inspection and Quarantine Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the Catalogue of Forensic Inspection) since January 1, 2011. The timely adjustment of the Catalogue of Legal Inspection has, to a large extent, prevented the outflow of unqualified products from the country and reduced the number of notifications of unqualified products. On the other hand, in recent years, the inspection and quarantine institutions directly under the national inspection and quarantine authorities have continuously strengthened the publicity of relevant EU laws and regulations for export garment manufacturers, gradually improved the understanding and awareness of export enterprises on EU laws and regulations, enhanced the importance of enterprises on the quality and safety of children's clothing products, and gradually improved the ability of enterprises to review and feedback customer samples, Reduce the occurrence of return and recall events.

The total number of children's wear products in China has decreased, but its percentage in clothing, textiles and decorative products has slightly increased. The current export situation of children's wear in China still needs the continuous attention of all sectors of society.

2、 The risk factors of children's clothing products are diverse, involving more regulations and standards

Of the 162 cases reported on children's clothing products in China in 2011, 6 were chemical hazard notifications, and the rest 156 were risk notifications caused by mechanical safety, accounting for 96.3% of the total number of children's clothing notifications.

In the chemical risk notification, the nickel release caused by two metal buckles and the azo dye content of four surface accessories (one of which is caused by sewing thread) significantly exceeded the REACH regulations.

　　 Chinese children's clothing Among the reported mechanical safety risks, except for the single risk of strangulation, personal injury or choking, 48 children's clothing notifications involve more than one risk, accounting for 29.6% of the total children's clothing. If the girl's skirt belt is too long, it will cause personal injury, and at the same time, the decorations on it are easy to fall off and be eaten by children by mistake, which will also cause choking risk; In some children's sports suits, there are unqualified rope straps at the neck and waist.

Among the risk factors involved in the notified children's clothing, in addition to mainly failing to comply with EN14682 and REACH regulations on chemical safety related to children's clothing straps, standards such as UNE40902, BS7907 and EN14878 on combustion performance of small parts are also used as the basis for notification of some products. More and more regulations are involved in the notification, and more and more risk items are involved in the notification.

In the Chinese children's clothes reported by the European Union, the chemical content of the surface and auxiliary materials seriously exceeded the standard, and 1/3 of the mechanical safety hazards involved more than one risk mode, indicating that the manufacturers of these unqualified clothes are most likely new enterprises or three types of enterprises in the form of small family workshops. These enterprises have been running factories for a short time with weak risk awareness, little understanding of EU laws and regulations for export, and no ability to review and grasp customers' design samples, leading to the outflow of unqualified products.

In view of the relevant situation of Chinese children's clothing reported on the EU RAPEX website in 2011, the author puts forward the following suggestions for export clothing manufacturers, inspection and quarantine institutions and relevant social departments:

1. Children's clothing enterprises should improve risk awareness to ensure product quality and safety. As the first responsible person, export enterprises can avoid losses and ensure long-term development of enterprises only by constantly improving their risk awareness, ensuring production quality and ensuring the first pass of children's clothing production source.

First of all, in terms of the review of children's wear design drawings, it is necessary to master the laws and regulations of the export target countries, improve the ability to identify customer design schemes, and ensure that the products produced do not have batch risk factors in terms of safety; Secondly, strengthen the control ability of surface and auxiliary materials. Whether the raw and auxiliary materials are specially supplied by foreign trade companies or purchased by themselves, the suppliers should be required to provide the qualified test report of raw materials to ensure the quality of raw and auxiliary materials; Third, in the process of sewing, sorting and inspection, it is necessary to ensure the firmness of small parts on children's clothing to avoid choking danger caused by children's accidental eating due to small parts falling off.

In particular, small enterprises and new export enterprises with small scale, short factory operation time and insufficient experience in exporting children's clothing should pay more attention to the recall situation reported by European Union, the United States and other countries, improve the risk awareness of exporting children's clothing, ensure that the products produced meet the requirements of importing countries, and promote the sustainable development of enterprises.

2. The inspection and quarantine institutions should strictly check and improve their capabilities, and improve the inspection and supervision of export children's clothing enterprises. In the face of endless technical barriers to trade, inspection and quarantine personnel can truly "escort" export enterprises only by constantly improving their own capabilities and actively paying attention to the trade situation.

On the one hand, garment inspection and quarantine personnel should, in the heavy daily inspection and supervision work, focus on strengthening the inspection of exported children's clothing and the publicity of relevant laws and regulations, especially should specifically strengthen the products exported to sensitive countries such as the EU, the United States, Japan, and the attention paid to the products of three types of enterprises with poor capabilities. On the other hand, inspection and quarantine personnel should constantly improve their own quality, and improve their ability to collect and learn relevant foreign standards for children's clothing. The internal inspection and quarantine institutions should also realize the resource sharing of the feedback information on the notification and investigation of children's clothing for domestic export, and constantly learn the reasons for the notification of children's clothing and the subsequent treatment measures in real time, so as to improve the ability of inspection and quarantine personnel to understand and grasp the standards.

3. All departments should strengthen cooperation and jointly maintain the good image of Made in China. Society is a complex organic whole. I believe that through the cooperation of all parties in society and the strengthening of exchanges between them, we can jointly deal with the status quo of high notification of Chinese products.

First of all, communication and contact should be strengthened between children's garment export enterprises and inspection and quarantine institutions. Export enterprises, especially those with lower level, should take the initiative to ask the inspection and quarantine institutions to check their children's clothing in various forms in a timely manner. When encountering uncertain children's clothing design patterns, they should seek the help of the inspection and quarantine institutions in order to find and solve problems before production and reduce unnecessary losses for the enterprises themselves. At the same time, the inspection and quarantine personnel should also timely convey the latest trade situation to the relevant export enterprises within the jurisdiction.

Secondly, most garment factories provide foreign trade companies with samples of orders for processing, so it is necessary to strengthen the publicity of foreign trade companies' relevant laws and regulations, make them strengthen the audit when receiving orders, communicate with customers in a timely manner if there is any discrepancy, and establish an integrity system for foreign trade companies nationwide.

Third, the relevant departments should promote the improvement of domestic standards as soon as possible and strive to be in line with international standards as soon as possible, which is not only conducive to improving the quality level of the national children's clothing export enterprises, but also conducive to regulating the production status of children's clothing in China and ensuring the quality safety of children's clothing.