The latest problem involved heparin sold by Baxter International Inc. and linked to severe patient side effects. The Food and Drug Administration found a contaminant in supplies from China and criticized a supplier's manufacturing practices. A Chinese official has said the contaminant did not cause the side effects. The Chinese government wants to test samples from Baxter's manufacturing plant in Cherry Hill and sent scientists there this week.

The diplomatic dust-up comes on the heels of much-publicized safety problems with toys, pet food and toothpaste manufactured in China.

"I think we certainly reached a point where American consumers realized that there are huge gaping holes in our safety net," said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America.

But there's no easy way to enforce this country's safety standards on our largest trading partner, experts say, and consumers and business owners may be conflicted about the price of doing so.

Americans like the cheap goods we get from China. Some U.S. companies have invested heavily in China precisely because they wanted to avoid this country's rules, said Masaaki Kotabe, professor of international marketing at Temple University's Fox School of Business.

As the economy suffers, he said, Americans are likely to be even more drawn to Chinese-made goods. "The more cost-conscious they are, the more likely they are buying products from China," he said.

The U.S. government and Congress are moving toward tougher regulation of imported goods. Bills addressing the issue recently passed both houses, but have not reached the President's desk. Hearings began yesterday on a bill proposed by Rep. John D. Dingell (D., Mich.) that would collect a fee from importers of drugs, medical devices, foods and cosmetics, allowing the FDA to step up oversight of domestic and foreign production.

Late last year, the Chinese government pledged to U.S. officials that it would certify that food and agricultural feed, drugs and medical devices produced for export meet U.S. quality and safety standards. Chinese authorities agreed to electronically track products from production to exportation, and to adopt quality-assurance methods.

"The food, safety and product quality issue has been one of the major areas of cooperation and dialogue between the two governments," said Bao Dong Wang, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

Consumer advocates and trade experts said the United States needs more inspections of imports and bigger penalties for companies that make and sell dangerous products. And U.S. companies, which ultimately face lawsuits from consumers, need to crack down themselves on their Chinese suppliers.

"The root of the problem is that companies are really abrogating responsibility for safety to their contract manufacturers and they're not being rigorous enough in their testing of products," Weintraub said.

Both the FDA, which regulates food and drugs, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have been restricted by years of budget cuts, said Jean Halloran, director of food-policy initiatives for Consumers Union.

She said the Consumer Product Safety Commission needs more inspectors, and Kotabe agreed. "The U.S. can boast the lowest number of import inspectors in the world relative to the size of imports," he said. "Clearly, we can do a better job."

Halloran said China has good product standards but has not been able to enforce them.

"At the root of all of this," she said, "is that China is an economic powerhouse that's industrialized extremely rapidly and has not developed a consumer and product safety function commensurate with the speed of its industrialization."

Cliff Waldman, economist for the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI trade group, said it's impossible to know what percentage of Chinese-made products are subpar. "China's statistical system is back where ours was in the Depression," he said.

He thinks China will make quality a higher priority because it "values us as a trade partner" and is very interested in how it is viewed globally.

Marshall Meyer, a management professor at the Wharton School, lays some of the blame on American companies, who have made low cost their priority with the Chinese. Suppliers, he said, "will meet those cost constraints, but you don't want to know how they did it."

Meyer, who teaches a course on management of Chinese firms and goes to China several times a year said supply chains there are extremely long. The Chinese use more subcontractors than Americans expect or know about. "Often U.S. firms don't have enough people on the ground to monitor this properly," he said. ". . . It costs money to manage long supply chains and most of our business we do with China is based on price."

He thinks the Chinese government may also step in. It has started a "Made in China" campaign at home to upgrade its image. "It's trying to get the word out that if quality is poor," he said, "it will damage the national brand of China."