Richard Gottlieb

14 Very Important Things Importers Need to Know about Safety or What I learned from the Sino-U.S. Consumer Products Safety Summit

Further down the page you will find 14 important things you need to know about safety if you are an importer.  First though, let me tell you that there was something slightly surreal about the just completed safety summit. There I was, sitting behind a row of understandably worried toy industry people, in front of a row of understandably confident fireworks industry people (more on that in a future blog) and next to the former Reagan era head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

At the front of the room, the press corps sat in the journalistic equivalent of an orchestra pit offering up disembodied questions. On the dais sat government officials from the US and China trying to sound tough and seem nice all at the same time. Surprisingly weak Chinese translators made the political double speak, as impossible as it seems, even more confusing (kind of a quadruple speak) while the American government officials managed that without translators.

The conference was interesting for what was said, what was not said, what was alluded to and what happened in the aisles. There is much to report so I will break it up into several blogs.

Let’s start with the practical. Gib Mullan, Director of Compliance for the CPSC gave some sound rules of the road for those importing from China. Here is what he says you need to know:

1. Under US law, the importer is a statutory manufacturer. This means that you have responsibility for whatever is imported under your name whether you owned the means of production or not. 
2. It is up to you to know which standards apply to your product category and to communicate exactly those standards to your provider. Don’t assume they know.
3. There are two levels of standards: Minimum standards are those that are mandated by the government. Consensus standards are what the community expects. 
4. If for any reason you are sued, your failure to meet consensus standards will work against you in the courtroom.
5. Therefore, a failure to communicate consensus standards is a major error. In fact, Gib Mullan stated: “If you don’t specify them you are a ‘fool’ for being surprised.”
6. Know your way around the CPSC website as it is a great place to learn about the laws and what is happening.
7. Get to know safety consultants and practitioners from safety labs in the private sector. In other words get sophisticated in your safety knowledge.
8. There are currently certification requirements for some other industries. Under these requirements, safety certification has to travel with the products. Toys do not currently require certification but they likely will under bills pending in the Senate.
9. All products should be tested randomly early and often.
10. Sometimes product quality erodes over time so constant testing is essential. 
11. Have a system for tracking consumer complaints for all products you import.
12. Pay attention to information from the CPSC Clearinghouse and reports from retailers.
13. Early identification can avoid bigger problems.
14. Finally:

• Don’t assume that in an incident without injury there’s no problem.
• Do evaluate product failures to determine worst case.
• Don’t wait to finish an exhaustive investigation before telling CPSC.
• Don’t assume problems go away by themselves.

 Wang Xin, who directs the Chinese equivalent of the CPSC, may have said it best. US importers spend a great deal of time arguing with Chinese providers over price and comparatively little over safety standards. He may just have a point. 

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on September 12, 2007 | Comments (0)