Remember when a parent could be confident a toy was safe?  That's sure not the case anymore.  This year there have been at least 120 toy recalls, many for foreign-made toys containing lead.  One consumer rights group says those overseas companies aren't the only ones to blame.      On Thursday, Public Citizen released a report that points the finger at corporate greed and a weak national trade policy.  The report is called "Santa's Workshop:  Made in D.C. with Bad Trade Policy".  Phila Back, of the Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition said, "The analysis shows toy corporation decisions to shift production to countries without adequate safety systems and trade policy companies push through Congress are the root causes of the imported toy safety crisis."

     The report says 87 percent of American toys are now made overseas where labor is cheap, while toy company profits have jumped more than 1700 percent since 1970.
U.S. Senator Robert Casey Jr. said, "We need a policy which says it shall be a policy of the United States government to not just talk about fair trade but to give meaning to that phrase. So that our workers can compete on a level playing field."  Casey joined state lawmakers and labor leaders at a news conference Thursday morning at the State Capitol.

     Funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission may have increased recently, but Senator Casey said there still aren't enough inspectors.  It's a problem Casey said President Bush has the power to fix, "He could hire a couple hundred investigators and inspectors like the snap of a finger and he should do that."

     Senator Casey conceded things may not change until the Bush Administration is out of power.  Next month the group plans to hold protest in cities nationwide calling for a stronger fair trade policy.