Summiteers list product safety priorities
By Staff -- Playthings, 11/18/2008 1:28:00 PM
BRUSSELS, Belgium—A summit meeting of top product safety officials from the U.S., the European Union and China held this past weekend in Brussels will result in stepped up efforts to betterh armonize safety regulations between the three regions, including those involving toys.
“Ensuring a high level of product safety is a matter of shared concern for the European Union, China and the United States. Combined efforts and intensified cooperation are in the mutual interest of our citizens and economies,” said the countries’ delegations in a joint statement issued on Monday.
The summit’s participants agreed that specific actions have priority within their overall cooperation framework:
• Against the backdrop of the requirements of their respective systems, explore possibilities to develop harmonized approaches, where possible, for product traceability systems.
• Support efforts to compare the existing toy safety standards in the participants' respective jurisdictions with a view to identifying areas for further convergence while recognizing that the differentiated needs of the participants' own consumers may necessitate unique requirements.
• Collaborate more closely in the area of children's products safety by sharing information about regulatory and standardization developments with each other as early as possible with a view to facilitating compatibility and where possible, alignment of the relevant requirements. As a first step, no later than Jan. 1, 2009, participants will share with each other anticipated regulatory developments for the period 2009-2010.
• Solicit stakeholders’ participation, as appropriate, in order to take advantage of their experience and expertise.
• When resources and administrative capacity permit, explore the potential for short term study or resident expert exchange visits to enhance mutual understanding among staff members at expert levels in the three administrations.
The participants agreed to hold the next High-Level Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit in 2009 at a date and place to be determined, to take stock of progress made and discuss further cooperative efforts.
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