October 23, 2007
Poll Track: China's Grinch Effect
Americans are growing increasingly wary of the nation's economic situation as they head into the crucial holiday spending season, according to a new poll from American Research Group. And in an address to a conference on U.S.-China relations this morning, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson hinted at one possible explanation for the recent jitters: the series of recalls over the past several months of Chinese-made products sold in the U.S.
"Recent and repeated reports of tainted food and product imports are causing fear and uncertainty in American consumers and harming the 'Made in China' brand here in the United States," Paulson said, calling on officials from both countries to step up product safety assurances rather than resort to "protectionism or retaliation," some of which has already occurred.
In a new CBS News/New York Times poll, a plurality of Americans agreed with Paulson that protectionism was the wrong approach. That poll also suggests that consumers aren't necessarily shying away from Chinese products just yet. But another recent survey conducted by Reuters/Zogby hints that Americans are not eager to spend their holiday shopping dollars on potentially harmful Chinese-made toys. That's bad news for U.S. retailers, because roughly 80 percent of the toys they sell are imported from China.
See today's Poll Track (subscription) for more numbers on the economy and Chinese-made products.
