Product Safety

By: Charles E. Joern, Jr.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) enforces consumer product safety laws for thousands of different kinds of consumer products.  Foreign products that do not comply with applicable regulations can be seized at the border, forfeited, and destroyed.  Here are 10 things to remember if you are importing consumer products into the United States.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is increasing its efforts to prevent consumer products that violate U.S. safety rules from entering the country. The agency recently announced enhanced efforts to screen imported products for safety violations. CPSC investigators are working jointly with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at 15 major ports of entry to inspect goods and prevent the entry of products that fail to meet CPSC rules.

In the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, CPSC investigators prevented over 500,000 units of “violative and hazardous imported products from entering the country,” according to an April 5, 2012, CPSC news release, During the past fiscal year, the agency inspected more than 9,900 product shipments at ports nationwide and prevented almost 4.5 million units of such products from entering U.S. stores and homes.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued a press release proclaiming " Toys Safer This Holiday Season Due to Stronger Safety Rules". The same release, however, included a Commission staff report showing that toy related deaths of children actually increased and the number of injuries to children remained high. The headline that stronger federal rules enhance toy safety appears to conflict with the Commission's own report.