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CPSC, PROFECO, and Health Canada Issue Joint Statement On The Fourth North America Product Safety Summit

Release Date: May 04, 2018
  • North America Safety Summit
    North America Safety Summit
  • North America Safety Summit
    North America Safety Summit

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Consumer Protection Federal Agency of Mexico (PROFECO), and the Department of Health Canada (Health Canada) remain committed to our collaboration and to the common goal of protecting the consumers of North America.

On May 3rd and 4th, 2018, the product safety regulators held the Fourth North America Consumer Product Safety Summit in Bethesda, Maryland to take stock of the accomplishments in recent years, gather input from a wide range of stakeholders, identify areas for joint work in product safety, and develop a path forward for future collaboration.  Regulators will build upon the achievements to date and explore new areas for cooperation under the new trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of March 2018.

In 2011 the regulators held the first North America Product Safety Summit in Bethesda, Maryland, followed by the 2013 Summit in Ottawa and the 2015 Summit in Mexico. The regulators see the continuation of this collaboration as an essential aspect of addressing consumer product safety issues in today’s economies. The rise of online and direct-to-consumer sales has blurred traditional borders and has enabled consumers to access an ever-increasing variety of consumer products. Innovative products and the ways in which consumers interact with them are changing the way regulators approach consumer product safety. As such, trilateral cooperation remains an essential tool to meeting the challenges of today’s marketplace.  

The 2018 Summit focused on the product safety challenges presented by e-commerce and high energy batteries (e.g., lithium-ion), and gave regulators a chance to hear from North American stakeholders on consumer product safety matters of interest to them.

Staff from the three agencies will develop activities based consensus generated during the summit, as well as the priority areas of cooperation as outlined in the recently signed MOU, including:

  1. developing further the regulators’ joint capacity to engage in cross-border product safety and customs cooperation in order to prevent trade in hazardous products within North America;
  2. creating joint outreach activities to promote consumer awareness;
  3. participating in joint industry outreach activities to conduct training on product safety requirements in North America;
  4. promoting collaboration across different technical areas including laboratory sciences, risk identification, and compliance;
  5. working together and with industry to issue joint recalls when the regulators mutually decide it is appropriate;
  6. holding technical consultations on consumer product hazards; 
  7. where authorized by each regulator’s national laws, sharing best practices related to compliance and enforcement, risk assessments of consumer products, and the identification of new and emerging issues of concern;
  8. sharing updates or proposed changes to relevant legislation, regulations, safety standards, and conformity assessment procedures, to the extent possible;
  9. holding technical staff exchange programs on issues of mutual interest; and,
  10. holding joint working group meetings on issues of mutual interest.
Release Number
18-149

About the U.S. CPSC
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risk of injury or death associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product-related incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products has contributed to a decline in the rate of injuries associated with consumer products over the past 50 years. 

Federal law prohibits any person from selling products subject to a Commission ordered recall or a voluntary recall undertaken in consultation with the CPSC.

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