TOYS

Mattel has only itself to blame for a huge toy recall that has stoked global alarm about Chinese-made goods, state media said on Thursday, charging that a slew of foreign safety scares had exposed a protectionist agenda.

Officials launch a campaign to fix problem products that have damaged confidence in the 'made in China' label.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday it was taking more steps to make sure its toys are safe after Mattel Inc's recall this month of millions of Chinese-made toys.

Foreign sales of some Chinese products have been shaken by reports of dangerous goods, but the country's fast-rising exports show most consumers remain untroubled, senior Chinese officials said on Thursday.

A U.S.-based workers' rights group said it found brutal conditions and labor violations at eight Chinese plants that make toys for big multinationals, and called on the companies to take steps for better standards.

Toy maker Mattel Inc was sued on Monday in an attempt to force it to set up a fund to pay for testing children who may have been exposed to lead poisoning from its toys, according to a Los Angeles-based attorney.

Retailer Toys R Us on Friday said it removed all Hamco Inc.'s vinyl baby bibs, which were made in China, from its shelves as a precaution after an independent tester found two samples of bibs containing excessive amounts of lead.

Many Chinese toy workers have lost their jobs following Mattel Inc.'s global recall of toys, an industry body said on Friday, but insisted overall confidence in their products was high ahead of the key Christmas season.

China may be a trade giant but ineffective controls have kept it a quality weakling and are sapping competitiveness, the nation's safety watchdog said, as fears grow in the United States about the made-in-China label.

China will send delegations to the United States in August and September to discuss food and product safety following a spate of product recalls, a Chinese Embassy official said on Wednesday.

The U.S. toy industry is under growing pressure from U.S. lawmakers and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to launch a testing program to ensure the safety of products from China, officials said on Tuesday.

The boss of a Chinese toy manufacturing company involved in a Mattel recall after its products were found to contain excessive lead levels has hanged himself, Chinese media reported on Monday.

Chinese-made toys are overwhelmingly safe and the number of unsafe products is dwarfed by the total export value, state media said on Friday, a week after Mattel pulled goods because of fears about lead in paint.

China has banned two factories from exporting toys after a high-profile recall of Mattel products including Big Bird and Elmo because of fears about lead in paint.

Mattel Inc. said on Thursday it expects the recall of Chinese-made toys, such as popular preschool characters like Sesame Street's Elmo and Big Bird, to result in a charge of $30 million.

Two black shoppers have sued Toys R Us saying they were subjected to racial discrimination and unjustified scrutiny at a store in New York.

As holiday shopping winds down, new research shows Toy shoppers are migrating more to Target stores than the main competition which includes Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.

Strong rises in the cost of toys and games pushed the inflation rate up more than expected in August, reinforcing expectations that interest rates will rise again before the end of the year.