During the housing boom the United States had a need to import drywall. The Chinese capitalized on the US demand for drywall and sold to the American people millions of sheets of drywall. Americans were happy. The Chinese manufacturers of drywall were happy and both governments were happy. Everybody was happy until that is people that lived and worked in the homes where the Chinese drywall was installed started getting sick. Symptoms such as dry, itchy and watery eyes were accompanied by relentless hacking coughs and scratchy throats. But that was not all. It seemed that the wiring of the homes and appliances that were in the homes were failing due to massive wide spread corrosion.
Where was all this coming from? After repeated investigations by US officials and responsible American agencies it was concluded that it was the Chinese drywall that was causing the problem. Affected Americans had to leave their homes and in many cases spend thousands of dollars to rip out the affected wiring, appliances and suspicious Chinese drywall. Law suites were filed against everyone from the distributors to the installers to the manufacturers but so far nothing has been concluded. In some instances the affected homes have sat vacant for several years while the owners wait to see the outcome of the litigation.
Why the delay? In the US, faulty products that are manufactured in this country upon discovery are usually fallowed by massive recalls of the faulty products, this is because American agencies can quickly respond to public complaints by inspecting the products and plants where the products in question were manufactured. If fault is found then a recall is required of those faulty products to the plants that manufactured them and just compensation in the form of a refund of the purchase price or a non faulty product replacement is given. However, the US does not have jurisdiction over products that are manufactured in factories that are owned or operated in foreign nations.
In the case of the faulty Chinese drywall the Chinese government has done little to address the problem caused by Chinese drywall producers to the US market. This is a problem that for now will find no resolution. It is an unfortunate result of doing business in a global market where the sellers all do not play by the same rules. Those that feel that they can getaway with cutting corners by selling products with inferior material will do so. The tragedy in this case is that the consumer is paying the final cost. In some cases not only do they have to Pay out of pocket expenses to replace the Chinese drywall, wiring and appliances but they also have to pay for the health damages and ultimately some have had to abandon their family homes. This is a true tragedy! For more information on this subject feel free to Google "Chinese Drywall".