Reuters, on Dec. 19, reported that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would ban all toys made in China. "The Japanese do this on food, they basically say to China, you cannot import food unless you meet our safety inspectors." He said.

Who gets hurt if the US bans China-made toys?

Factories in ShenZhen, China, made the toys. They came to the US most likely at the Long Beach port. From there trucks carry them to to a store near a consumer. This consumer pays for the toy and give it to someone, probably a child.

During this whole process, the manufacturing part (in China) got just a fraction of the total value. Most of the money goes to the retail chain and the toy brand owner, like Mattel, a US company. Mattel employs many US employees. More importantly, it has many US shareholders. Banning toys import hurt the US more than China.

Many unsafe toys are made in China, but not all bad toys are made in China. China made many unsafe toys, but not all toys made in China are not safe. China is not the only country that produces unsafe toys, nor is she producing only unsafe toys. The criteria of the ban, as proposed by Mr. Obama, is not logical in achieving the goal — allegedly to eliminate all unsafe toy from US market.

This proposal hurts US economy and is not effective in achieving its goal.