Delegate Peeved China Was Tipped Off on Lead-Tainted Toys Bill

The Washington Post

When he introduced a bill in the Maryland General Assembly to prohibit the sale and manufacture of children's toys containing lead, Del. James W. Hubbard (D-Prince George's) said he could not have imagined it would set off a transcontinental diplomatic dispute.

But that's what has unfolded.

Last week, the legislature received a letter from officials of the People's Republic of China objecting to Hubbard's bill. The comments, faxed from Beijing and written in English and Chinese, challenged the authority of the state legislature to enact such laws and said they would create "unnecessary barriers to international trade."

It's true that many of the lead-containing products recalled in recent months have been made in China. But how did the Chinese government catch wind of Hubbard's bill, which hasn't even advanced out of the House Health and Government Operations Committee?

It turns out that an official at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative tipped it off about the bill's international trade ramifications. Hubbard wrote a sharply-worded letter last week to Ambassador Susan C. Schwab in the trade office:

"We cannot understand why any representative of the United States Government would suggest to a foreign government that it become involved in the legislative process of the State of Maryland," Hubbard wrote....


Ambassador Susan C. Schwab was nominated to be United States Trade Representative by President George W. Bush on April 18, 2006