National Business Daily:
According to media reports, some countries alleged that medical products, including masks, bought from China had quality problems. What are the causes of the quality problems in China's medical exports? And what measures will China take to prevent substandard medical materials from entering the international market again? Thank you.
Jiang Fan:
Thank you for your question. We have also noticed relevant reports, and through multiple investigations, we found that the reports didn't show the whole picture. Some media outlets placed all the blame on the poor quality of Chinese products; but in fact, there were many factors, such as the different quality standards of Chinese and foreign products, differences in usage habits and even user error that might raise doubts about quality. For example, a previous batch of non-surgical masks for personal protection exported from China to the Netherlands was distributed to local hospitals. Here's the latest information I got: On the night of April 3, the Dutch health minister tweeted that a new batch of masks imported from China met the Netherlands' official criteria and had been approved for distribution.
Life is above everything else. The quality and safety of medical supplies are directly related to people's lives and health. At this rare time of global pandemic prevention and control, we must resolutely adopt strict measures to further control the quality of medical products and standardize exportation. According to a notice jointly issued recently by the Ministry of Commerce with the General Administration of Customs and the National Medical Products Administration, exports of five kinds of medical products, including COVID-19 testing kits, require certifications from China's National Medical Products Administration and must meet the quality control standards of importing countries or regions. The Ministry of Commerce, together with other relevant departments, will step up the supervision and control of production, certification, customs clearance and other aspects. Counterfeit and shoddy goods and disorderly acts will be severely punished in accordance with the law and will never be tolerated.
And of course, I would like to point out that it is international practice for importing countries and regions to ensure the quality of medical products entering their domestic market. While China takes the initiative to strictly control the quality of our exports, we also hope that relevant countries and regions can carry out the necessary quality inspection of import products and properly use the products in adherence to their applicable scope and operating procedures. As for the problems with procurement, we suggest that companies have full communications and negotiate in line with the contracts and the principles of commercialization.
