Tire recall reveals downside to low-cost imports
by Paul ***
Wednesday June 27, 2007, 5:02 AM


American consumers have been big beneficiaries of the manufacturing explosion in China, which has produced an expanding flow of products that show up in U.S. stores at prices well below those for domestically produced goods. But a downside has been a steady erosion of manufacturing opportunities and jobs in the U.S.

But the equation turns into lose/lose when the imported products fail to measure up to U.S. quality and safety standards. A New Jersey tire importer, this week was ordered to recall as many as 450,000 defective replacement truck tires it bought from a Chinese manufacturer.

In January, under orders from federal safety officials, Foreign Tire Sales of Union Township stopped selling tires it imported from China in 2005 and 2006. The 19,000 tires failed to comply with labeling regulations requiring the sidewall to display a maximum load rating and inflation instructions.

The company said it began suspecting problems with the tires in October 2005. Eleven months later, the manufacturer, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., admitted it did not have the required safety feature, called a gum strip, that helps bind the belts of a tire to each other.

The flow of substandard goods from China goes far beyond tires. After an investigation that spanned 19 months, federal authorities Tuesday arrested 29 people and accused them of trafficking in counterfeit goods and conspiring to smuggle merchandise from China through ports in Newark, Staten Island, Houston and Long Beach, Calif., as well as through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Bogus Rolex watches. Phony Gucci handbags. Fraudulent Nike sneakers. Enough to fill more than 950 40-foot-long cargo containers. If they were sold as name brands, they would be worth more than $700 million, authorities said.
--Tom Johnson, Mary Jo Patterson, Joe Malinconico