Consumer Safety Bill Targeting de Minimis Shipments Passes House
A bill that instructs CBP to use manifest data to enhance targeting of de minimis shipments -- with a particular focus on China -- passed the House of Representatives Sept. 29. The Consumer Product Safety Inspection Enhancement Act says that CBP would need to start the enhanced screening of consumer products within 18 months of the law's signing. The bill says that CBP should use the participating government agencies message set, property rights seizure data, and certificates of compliance to do risk assessments for products that could violate consumer product safety standards.
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The government will need to be able to connect with the data and targeting systems at express carrier facilities, international mail facilities and e-commerce platforms, the bill says. Within two years, exporters will have to file certificates of compliance for consumer products that are being sent de minimis, the bill says.
Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach released a statement after the bill's passage, calling on the Senate to pass a companion bill. “Right now, American consumers shopping online are being exposed to a flood of counterfeit and dangerous products with none of the more than one million packages a day coming in from China alone getting inspected thanks to a de minimis rule that lets such shipments skirt normal Customs procedures. This legislation will require safety inspectors be posted at the ports of entry where now hundreds of millions of uninspected packages enter and head to U.S. consumers who ordered goods online.”