Wal-Mart Is Directly Responsible for Deadly Toys

Posted by Cliff Schecter, Brave New Films at 12:00 PM on November 9, 2007.

This post, written by Cliff Schecter, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Brave New Films Blog

With their Chinese toy selection, Wal-Mart might save you a few cents while killing your kids. Heartwarming.

Retailers such as Wal-Mart put so much pressure on suppliers to produce cheap goods that health, environmental and labor protections get brushed aside. Wal-Mart is the nation's top importer of Chinese-made products. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reports the giant retailer's reliance on cheap goods made in China has cost this country nearly 200,000 jobs since 2001.

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The U.S. trade deficit with China reached a whopping $233 billion last year, and imports for Wal-Mart alone accounted for $27 billion-11 percent of the growth in the U.S. trade deficit with China since 2001.

Newman cites a new report from ILRF, which analyzes Wal-Mart's ethical standards and its effect on working conditions globally. Ethical Standards and Working Conditions in Wal-Mart's Supply Chain concludes that Wal-Mart has not invested the necessary resources or taken the necessary actions to ensure that its ethical standards program is actually enforced.

Yeah but their prices are a bit lower, so who cares if the cost is the lives of our kids, jobs, wages, healthcare and products that aren't crap.

Tagged as: china, walmart, children, trade, toys

Cliff Schecter blogs at Brave New Films.