>>Arlene Flecha: We welcome your questions.
Please send them to CPSC_Webinar@cpsc.gov.
Steve will gather your questions and will
refer them to the appropriate person.
While we gather the questions, I would like to
point out that in addition to the web content
that Silvia described, we also have
great content in Spanish for consumers.
You can have or find that link on
our website Consumers Española next
to the Business Española
at the top of our website.
>>Steven Williams: Thanks Arlene.
So, we've gotten a variety of questions,
Sylvia I think I'll give the first one to you.
Someone had written that they noticed
that there was a lot of training materials
on U.S. requirements for toys, apparel,
electronics posted to the website.
How often are those materials
in foreign languages updated?
>>Sylvia Chen: So, we try our best to
update them as the latest as possible.
So, let's say like for bio
training, we have three now,
so I would say for those materials
we update on an annual basis.
So, like in 2014 we had our first
buyer's training, so we posted apparel,
electrical, toy training material.
And then the next year we posted a second one.
So, we have updated version, and just recently
we finished the third buyer's training.
So, what you see now on the SPSC
website are the latest version,
so this is in general the training material.
So, this -- we'll talk about
the training material.
There are documents which we probably
won't update, we don't update as much.
Like if it's the legislation CPSIA, if
we translated them they would stay there
for a long time, for quite a long
time, unless we have changes.
>>Steven Williams: Okay, and kind of related,
someone asked about how far back those documents
go in terms -- is it a few years or more?
Do you have an approximate?
>>Sylvia Chen: CPSC's Chinese language website,
we launched it in May -- in February 2008.
So, the same year August your
CPSIA was passed, so we very --
it's like, one of two months later, or
even longer than that we translate it.
The CPSA as amended by the CPSIA, so I would say
that probably is the earlies
the document we published.
As far as date goes, the earlies version.
Steven Williams: Thank you.
One more related to the foreign
language content Sylvia.
It says, "How can I search on a
recalled product in a foreign language?
Is it possible by date, month,
year in various languages?
>>Sylvia Chen: Yeah, this
is a very good question.
So, you know, if when you're within a
CPSC main page, you see this recall.
So, you click it and you see the
recall list it's English version.
It's the English version of the
CPSC recalls, all the recalls.
And this one has a, right now
has a Spanish version as well,
so you can toggle between the two.
For the Chinese, we actually run a different,
not exactly the same for the Chinese because --
for the Chinese language -- version of
the CPSC recalls We highlight the recalls
for products manufactured in China.
So, for that as I just explained in
my presentation, you got to the, like,
CPSC main page on the right top banner
you go to those four Chinese characters.
So, you click it and then you
see the Chinese language website.
So, you scroll down and then you see
the CPSC recalls in the Chinese version.
So, you see this little arrow,
you click it, that will take you
to the Chinese version of the recalls.
We have so far posted, I think
as back as like 20 -- 2011.
And this were version in Chinese, we
run side by side an English version.
And what we are doing, IT People, our
web team are doing is that we are trying
to have this function of toggle between
the English and Chinese version.
They're not exactly the same
as the CPSC recalls, the --
or that I'm saying about the
English version and the main page.
The -- because these recalls are just products
recalled and products manufactured in China.
>>Steve Williams: Great, thank you.
I think that would be very useful information
for importers working with their sourcing
or other companies as they import.
Tilven, a question for you on recalls.
"Your presentation gave an
overview of some of the cooperation
with Health Canada and PROFECO in Mexico.
Can you discuss a little bit more
on the trilateral recall process
working with those organizations?
>>Tilven Bernal: Absolutely, thank you Steve.
Well, the very first that a company needs to
do if they want to recall a product in two
or more jurisdictions is, make sure
that they contact each of the agencies.
So, it would be the CPSC here in the
United States, PROFECO in Mexico,
and Health Canada in Canada
too let them know that you want
to do a voluntary trilateral recall.
Once you gather the information of the
units, the number of units sold in each
of those countries, definitely let us know.
And share as much information as you can so that
we can coordinate with the other agencies on --
in terms of, you know, similar language
for the recalls -- for the recall text.
For the date that it's going to
get posted for the type of remedy
that is going to be offered to the consumers.
So, it's really -- we've been working with
the other two agencies to make this process
as flawless as possible, so even though
a trilateral recall may sound complex,
we're really trying to make sure that
it's any easy process for the companies.
And we definitely encourage
industry that when they're --
when they find a product that is unsafe
in one market, they definitely talk
to the other agencies if that product
has been sold in other markets as well.
>> Steven Williams: Thanks, Tilven.
A question Arlene I'll give
to you, it asks about the --
keeping abreast of regulations or requirements.
It says, "My product area,
it seems like it has a lot
of different potential safety requirements,
how can I better know of changes
in the requirements if they should occur?"
"How does CPSC handle that?"
>>Arlene Flecha: Sure, thank
you for that question.
There's several alternatives, you can sign up
actually on our website to receive CPSC alerts.
And there's actually, for the
subscription you can select the type
of information you want to receive.
If it's regulation updates or
if it's about recalls per se,
there's different categories
for products, so that's one way.
Another way is that you can follow us
on Twitter at CPSC small biz, B-I-Z.
And our Small Business Ombudsman office
is constantly putting out updates
about new regulations, or updates on the
website of our frequently asked questions.
So, those are two very good ways that
businesses can stay on top of that --
any changes that the CPSC are making.
Thank you.
>>Steven Williams: Thanks Arlene.
Another question for you on buyer's
training, can you talk a little bit more
about buyer's training in Vietnam,
and maybe the next offering?
The companies potentially
interested in participating.
>>Arlene Flecha: Certainly.
So, our -- as I did in -- said
in the presentation our first buyer's training
took place in September, Ho Chi Minh City.
It was very successful, we had
about 125 buyers both were companies
in Vietnam and U.S. companies.
And the feedback that we got from the industry
participants is that they're looking forward
to future training, because we covered
a lot of material that was very helpful.
We plan to have our next buyer's training in --
we're looking in to probably the
Spring in 2018 or later in 2017.
We will certainly keep everyone updated,
and that information we also
put on our public calendar.
So, you can follow that information and that
way you can learn when the next on will be.
But definitely it was a success,
and it's a priority for the CPSC
to conduct future buyer's training in Vietnam.
>>Steven Williams: And a follow-up question
on the focus of apparel and furniture
in Vietnam training, can you
speak to some of those aspects?
>> Arlene Flecha: Certainly.
So, we focus on those product areas for two
main reasons, one of them is because of a volume
of exports to the U.S. That's
the majority of the products,
Vietnam right now is the
second source of apparel
and furniture for the U.S. following China.
So, that's one reason, the other is these
product categories have a lot of regulations
and can be high risk products due
to children's vulnerabilities.
So, there's a lot of requirements,
and we want manufactures, buyers,
and everyone in the industry to be aware of
what those requirements are before they try
to sell those products in the U.S.
>>Steven Williams: And Sylvia, maybe you
can comment on the training focus in Taiwan
and Korea on toys and electronics?
>>Sylvia Chen: So, yes, in Taiwan, Korea, we
also conduct a training, a training of seminars
on [inaudible] and manufactures, and
government officials there as well.
That we -- so far, we have conducted training
in bicycles and electric products, and toys.
We try to -- on -- some of the information,
safety information on these
categories of products.
The reason we pick these products
is because first, like for bicycles,
Taiwan is the largest importing source
of bicycle imports for the United States.
And CPSC have recalled quite
many, I would say products,
bicycles and bicycle components
manufactured in Taiwan.
So, we perceived this to be really useful
to Taiwanese manufactures helping them
to understand U.S. requirements for bicycles.
So, we had this -- when we ran this session
it was very successful and well received.
And for the electrical products we conducted
a training in both Korea, South Korea,
and Taiwan in -- also because these
two jurisdictions they manufacture
and they export a large number
of the electrical products
to the U.S. I'll just give you
a number, like Taiwan is the --
as far as electrical imports go it's
the sixth largest importing source,
and Korea is fourth largest
just after Japan and China.
And Japan and China in first, Japan in third,
so that's why we conducted 20 seminars there.
We also noticed the fact that a lot of
manufacturers, a lot of these products,
electrical products, toys, even bicycles when
they were exported to the United States some
of them were imported from China,
but the factories maybe invested
by the Taiwanese businesses, Korean businesses.
So, we -- we're aware of that,
so our target audience also,
they are also our target audience.
Thanks.
>>Steven Williams: Okay.
Thanks Sylvia.
A question in terms of China, "So,
thanks for the information regarding Vietnam
buyer training, but what about China?"
So, for China similarly like Vietnam we
are considering a Spring 2018 timeframe
for the next offering of buyer's training.
Each year we have been trying to do different
venues, cities in China to maximize leverage
of the main buying areas in terms of training.
And we welcome input in terms of that as well.
We have also been working with --
soliciting partners such as Australia.
We worked this past year as mentioned
earlier, other times we worked
with the European Union on that effort.
So, stay tuned for that if anyone has questions
or wants to get plugged into the effort for --
to know of the offering you can continue
to look at our small business updates
where we regularly publicize the public calendar
of course at CPSC where you can contact me
at the contact information
that was in the video.
Next question Arlene I'll direct to you, a
more cross cutting general one in terms of,
"Does my product need to comply
with CPSIA requirements?"
They don't say exactly what their product is,
but for a company that wants to check it out,
how would they go about learning that?
>>Arlene Flecha: Yes, so that's -- also that
information can be found on our website.
We have this tool that is called the
Regulatory Robot, and that is an excellent tool
where businesses can go in and enter information
about their product, different specifications.
And after they answer a number of
questions they can get information
about what the requirements are
for their product after the CPSIA,
Consumer Product Safety Improvement
Act was implemented.
There's a number of requirements both technical
and administrative or procedural requirements,
so we encourage manufacturers and
businesses to check out the Regulatory Robot
for that, that's one of the options.
>>Steven Williams: Okay.
Next question I'll take, it asks in terms of
brands, "Does CPSC recommend specific brands
or products that are safest
for consumers to buy?
How would I go about the process
of getting such a certification?"
The answer to that is, no, CPSC doesn't provide
such endorsements of particular products.
So, we don't recommend specific brands or
products, we basically provide information
on the safety requirements
that the products must meet.
So, that would be something
that our agency doesn't do.
Next question, Tilven I'll give
to you in terms of industry,
"How can I review safety industry --
safety issues involving my industry,
my products that maybe are
the hot items to be aware of?"
>> Tilven Bernal: Yes.
We have, as it was mentioned before,
we have in our website a list
of the recalls that we've done over the years.
So, we would definitely invite
industries to keep, you know,
paying attention to recalls
that involve their area.
So, constantly looking for news on that,
and also there is another web page called
Safer Products.gov that includes comments
from consumers where they can also do
some research about products involved
in incidents that, you know,
are part of their industry.
So, those are some, you know, two tools that
we have at our disposal -- their disposal.
>> Steven Williams: Okay, thanks Tilven.
A question on lab certification,
Sylvia I'll give this one to you.
In terms of, they have a great product
they want to bring it to market.
It's premarket, "How can I find out
more in terms of a certification
for my product before I go to market?"
"Is that available, how would I go about it?"
>>Sylvia Chen: On the CPSC website
we have this CPSC Lab Accreditation.
So, there are information on the
laboratories, of course this is for third-party
on testing for children products.
PCP -- in general, CPSC doesn't have the legal
authority to certify products pre-mark --
with -- certify products premarket,
but we do think that responsible companies
should test their products before they go
into mar -- their products go into market.
So, as I said, companies that
sell children's' products,
they are required to test their
products and certify their products,
and making sure that they comply with the CPSC
regulations, and with the safety standards.
For those -- so, the laboratories that conduct
the product testing have to be accredit --
have to be in CPSC's accreditation program, for
that information you can find on CPSC website.
>>Steven Williams: Okay, thanks Sylvia.
Arlene I think that's basically the
questions that we've gotten to date.
So...
>>Arlene Flecha: Thank you Steve.
Though -- thanks everyone
for joining this webinar,
we hope that you found the information
that we shared today helpful.
And if you have technical questions after the
webinar, we encourage you to send your questions
to our Small Business Ombudsman,
and her name is Shelby Mathis,
and you can send them to SMathis@cpsc.gov.
Also, I'd like to point out that this
webinar is being recorded, and will be posted
on our website in the -- under
the section of News and Videos.
And thank so much, that's all for today.