Inez Tenenbaum, the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, has asked China to help persuade its drywall manufacturers to cooperate in assisting U.S. homeowners fix their homes.
Tenenbaum is in Shanghai this week for meetings with her Chinese and European counterparts. Tenenbaum said that she was encouraged by the response of product safety officials in China but needs the Chinese trade ministry to help persuade makers of the drywall to meet with U.S. officials to work on the issue.
As reported here, German-Chinese Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. is the only manufacturer of Chinese drywall that has agreed to pay for repairs for U.S. homeowners. Describing Knauf’s decision to participate in a remediation pilot program as a “major breakthrough,” Tenenbaum said:
“What we’re asking and we’ve been asking for months is for the Chinese government to help us get the other manufacturers to the table….Up to today we’ve not been able to get any Chinese manufacturers to cooperate and we’re asking the government to help coordinate that meeting.”
Tenenbaum also said that she believes one particular government sponsored Chinese company is resistant to cooperating and currently represents an impediment to international collaboration on the issue. She did not name the company.