Industry Groups Urge Caution on New CPSC Import Requirements, Want More Regulatory Alignment
The Consumer Product Safety Commission needs to make sure its efforts to stop unsafe and counterfeit products at the border don’t delay imports of compliant products from compliant companies, said Rebecca Mond, director-federal government relations at the Toy Industry Association. Mond spoke at a July 10 hearing on CPSC priorities for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. Mond also encouraged regulatory alignment with others, given her industry’s reliance on international trade.
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“With time of the essence delivery requirements, and just-in-time inventory and management at retail, even short delays can result in cancellation of orders,” said Mond. “This can have catastrophic consequences for many of our members.” Any changes to CPSC import requirements that impact the supply chain need to be coordinated with CBP and take into account importers’ standard operating procedures, timing, and volume cycles, she said. Mond recommended that CPSC form a customs advisory committee, similar to CBP’s advisory committee on commercial operations. And as CPSC increases its presence at the ports, it should maintain its focus on products that pose the most significant risks to consumers, she said.
None of the commissioners addressed Mond’s recommendation of an advisory committee. But Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum said CPSC is continuing its development of criteria for targeting shipments based on risk. In its recently completed and “successful “ risk assessment pilot, CPSC looked at whether entities are repeat offenders or first-time importers, as well as whether violations are consistently associated with the product, she said.
“We are committed to a risk assessment methodology,” Tenenbaum said. But CPSC only has 20 people in its import surveillance division, so the agency has to rely on its partnership with CBP, she said. CPSC is hopeful that Congress will fund risk assessment nationwide. “The more we can just target those people who are suspect, then the others can go through Commerce freely,” she said.
Continued Work on Regulatory Alignment
Another area where CPSC needs to continue and augment its work is regulatory alignment with other countries’ standards, said Mond. “A strong, aligned global safety framework will provide greater consumer protection, and facilitate the production of safe, compliant products that can be sold in markets around the world,” she said. CPSC should continue sharing information and best practices with its regulatory counterparts around the world, and dedicate further resources towards its regulatory alignment goal, said Mond.
Asked by Commissioner Nancy Nord why U.S. and European toy safety standards haven’t yet been aligned, Mond said that the two standards already have much in common. They are about 80 percent aligned between the U.S. and EU, and the standards are functionally equivalent, she said. The 20 percent difference is “mostly because of political influences,” Mond said, which will be a challenging hurdle to surmount.
Randall Hertzler of the Handmade Toy Alliance agreed that regulatory cooperation should be a CPSC goal moving forward. “In many cases the difference in regulations are small, and also insignificant, but the small differences create a large economic hurdle for small manufacturers in Europe that export to the U.S.,” he said.