Officials from China, the US and the European Union yesterday agreed to work towards synchronising safety standards for children's toys in the first trilateral summit on product safety.

The meeting, held in Brussels, marks the start of a collaborative system following the so-called 2007 "summer of recalls", when Chinese exports of toys containing lead and loose magnets were pulled from shop shelves across the world. The three parties have resolved to work towards merging their product tracing systems so dangerous items can be identified and tracked back to the manufacturer as quickly as possible.