The Consumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC) will be starting its first overseas office after being unable to influence Chinese drywall manufacturers to compensate US homeowners that were victim to the toxic drywall.
According to an article published on ProPublica entitled “China Plays Tug-of-War with U.S. Inspectors over Drywall,” the United States’ investigation of defective Chinese drywall has been an everlasting “tug-of-war” battle between US investigators and the Chinese manufacturers and their government. It has even gone as far as a Chinese official attempting to force a piece of the drywall from an American inspector’s grasp.
The past decade has been fraught with instances of outright dangerous products coming to the American market from China, with little regulation and less accountability. The phrase “Made in China” has turned into a cultural catchphrase, evidencing the fact that China is now the largest owner of U.S. treasury debt and a primary source of American consumption.
There has been an undeniable migration of manufacturing from the U.S. to other countries in the past decade. Business expert Jim Pinto summarizes the situation, “[I]n the U.S. today, big factories are despised and penalized with high taxes, strict zoning regulations and infinite bureaucracy. ‘Not In My Backyard’ attitudes are driving manufacturing offshore [whereas] . . . China and many other countries seem to be inviting industry with open arms and deferred taxes.”
Following the heels of the Chinese drywall crisis currently facing the Nation, there are sure to be numerous consequences, effects, and repercussions on felt on many levels. One aspect of this broad category of consequences may be, in essence, an evolving level of consumer distrust with regard to foreign producers, coupled with a shift in public policy and/or market trends.
In an effort to investigate the thousands of defective Chinese drywall allegations, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, starting Wednesday in Beijing, will meet with its Chinese equivalent. CPSC Chairwoman, Inez Tenenbaum, has stated that she will stress notions of fairness and justice, noted spokesman Scott Wolfson.
One aspect of the Chinese drywall litigation underway in New Orleans becoming increasingly frustrating to the plaintiffs and their attorneys is the technically muddled, international and political composition of arguably applicable treaties, conventions, and jurisdictional assertions. In short, recovering money damages from Chinese-owned defendants requires navigation down a legal path fraught with more hurdles than would be the case when seeking to recover from U.S. counterparts.
The Chairman of the CPSC, Inez Tenebaum, plans to ask China to help pay for the billions of dollars in damages to US homes caused by Chinese-made drywall.
In many lawsuits involving product liability claims, harmed individuals can sue an entire chain of supply. The manufacturer of the product is generally at the top or beginning of such a chain. In the case of allegedly defective and/or dangerous Chinese drywall, manufacturers tend to be either based in partly or wholly in China.
If you are a homeowner or builder who has been affected by imported drywall from China you are mostly likely already familiar with the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Drywall Information Center. If however you are not, and are interested in monitoring the progress of the CPSC, check out there website at least once a month for new investigative results and updates.
