CSPC, AQSIQ and DG-Sanco Outline Cooperation

CPSC, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspections and Quarantine (AQSIQ), and the European Commission Directorate General for Health & Consumers (DG-Sanco) issued a joint statement as the culmination of the Third Biennial Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit held at CSPC’s Bethesda, Md. offices June 28-29. The 600-word joint statement offered an overview of the two-day summit, outlined three points of consensus and six specific action items.

Points of Consensus

• “Enhanced international regulatory cooperation can improve the safety of products reaching our consumers, which is the mission of the Tripartite Participants.
• “Promoting consumer product safety is the common objective of consumer product safety authorities worldwide.
• “Seamless surveillance is of great importance to enhancing international consumer product safety.”

Specific Actions

• “Lay out further steps we intend to take…contributing to the implementation of the above Points of Consensus.
• “Outline specific steps required to move towards a ‘seamless surveillance’ model.
• “Continue research on relevant standards in the field of consumer products.
• “Continue to explore the possibilities of developing harmonized approaches for consumer product traceability.
• “Engage other relevant safety services.
• “Continue…to improve information exchange between our administrations.”

Following in the footsteps of the previous two trilateral summits (Brussels, 2008 and Shanghai, 2010) the US, EU and China held high-level meetings to discuss non-food consumer product safety issues with a theme of “Product Safety Surveillance from Factory to Front Door: a Cooperative Effort.”

During a June 29 press conference, CPSC public affairs director Scott Wolfson described the summit’s goal as that of “seamless surveillance,” through encouraging regulatory cooperation, promoting consumer product safety messaging, sharing market data and deepening overall communication channels among the three groups.

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum, AQSIQ vice Minister Sun Dawei and EU Commissioner John Dalli shared brief comments on their favorable opinions of the summit and hopes for the continued success of the partnership.

The next Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit is scheduled to take place in 2014 in the European Union.