In
response to last summer’s massive recalls of toys manufactured in
China, a U.S. government interagency taskforce has issued a report
containing recommendations for increasing the safety of consumer
products imported into the United States.
Issued in November, the
<i>Action Plan for Import Safety</i> was prepared by the
Interagency Working Group for Import Safety, composed of
representatives from almost all major cabinet departments and agencies,
including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department
of Commerce, the Department of Homeland Security and the Consumer
Product Safety Commission.
The report presents what it calls a
“strategic framework,” based on prevention, intervention and response,
and identifies 14 separate recommendations, as follows:
- Create new and strengthen existing safety standards;
- Verify compliance of foreign producers with U.S. safety and security standards;
- Promote Good Importer Practices;
- Strengthen penalties and take strong enforcement action to ensure accountability;
- Make product
safety an important principle of our diplomatic relationships with
foreign countries and increase the profile of relevant foreign
assistance activities;
- Harmonize federal government procedures and requirements for processing import shipments;
- Complete a single-window interface for the intra-agency, interagency, and private sector exchange of import data;
- Create an interactive import-safety information network;
- Expand laboratory capacity and develop rapid testing methods for swift identification of hazards;
- Strengthen protection of intellectual property rights to enhance consumer safety;
- Maximize the effectiveness of product recalls;
- Maximize federal-state collaboration;
- Expedite consumer notification of all product recalls;
- Expand the use of electronic track-and-trace technologies.
The <i>Action
Plan</i> anticipates that additional resources will be required
to implement specific recommendations, noting that “Federal departments
and agencies will coordinate, plan effectively and meet these goals by
submitting additional funding needs through the normal budget process.”
Our readers can view the complete text of the <i>Action Plan for Import Safety</i> at this link.
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