Senator Joseph Biden rejects the notion that in the face of dangerous Chinese-made products, there’s not much to be done:

With the WTO guidelines, we could stop these products coming in now. This president doesn’t act. We have much more leverage on China than they have on us.

Let’s get something straight here. We’re making them into 10 feet tall. It took them 30 years to get 20 percent of their population out of poverty. They’ve got 800 million people in poverty. They’re in real distress.

The idea that a country with 800 million people in poverty has greater leverage over us is preposterous. What it is: We’ve yielded to corporate America. We’ve yielded to this president’s notion of what constitutes trade, and we’ve refused to enforce the laws that exist.

As president, I would end — flat, bang, no importation of those toys. Why? Under WTO, you’re allowed to do it until you send inspectors to guarantee. Why aren’t they doing it? Corporate America doesn’t want it…. Enforce the law. Enforce the law.

For too long, we’ve had a president who won’t act on behalf of the American people because corporate interests demand inaction. We need to reverse this set of priorities, so that our president will put the needs of the American people before the needs of corporations.

(Source: National Public Radio Democratic Presidential Debate of December 4 2007)