Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit

China - United States - European Union
Joint Press Statement

October 26, 2010
Shanghai, China

Mutual Interest

Ensuring a high level of product safety is a matter of shared concern for the European Union, China, and the United States (hereinafter "tripartite participants"). Coordination and cooperation are in the mutual interest of our consumers and our economies.

Following the successful "High-level Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit" held in Brussels in November 2008, the product safety authorities of China, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ); the United States, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC); and the European Union, the Health and Consumers Directorate General of European Commission (DG SANCO), have taken further steps toward strengthening our trilateral cooperation in this area with the second High-level Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit, held today in Shanghai.

Zhi Shuping, Minister of AQSIQ; Inez Tenenbaum, Chairman of the U.S. CPSC; and John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumers, reviewed the progress from previous cooperation and discussed further joint activities that could be undertaken to improve cooperation and the exchange of information to promote consumer product safety.

Points of Consensus

The tripartite participants reached a consensus on the following in a sprit of resolve, openness, and mutual respect:

1. The tripartite participants confirm that the ability of global supply chains to deliver safe products to the consumer is paramount. Investment in training and management, and quality assurance systems for product designers, manufacturers, importers, and retailers is a prerequisite to ensuring a high-level of product safety. We, as product safety authorities, should actively promote those practices in all levels of the supply and distribution chains that enhance the safety of consumer products.
2. The tripartite participants note that, given the increasing China-U.S.-EU share of global consumer products trade, enhanced cooperation and resolution of relevant issues can make significant contributions to the protection of consumer health and the advancement of consumer product safety around the world.
3. The tripartite participants' conviction that consumer product safety is an important area of shared concern has led to positive steps taken to improve consumer product safety over the years. These include action within our own jurisdictions, within the framework of bilateral cooperation mechanisms (such as the RAPEX-China exchanges of rapid alert information between the EU and China and the CPSC-AQSIQ Manufacturer Notification Procedure), and within tripartite joint activities. Future work could be chosen from among the specific actions below.
4. The tripartite participants believe that the timely communication of product safety information can be useful for achieving our mutual goals. We affirm the importance of timely mutual notification of the development of administrative regulations; cooperation on enforcement activities where mutually beneficial; and where circumstances permit, the exchange of experience, data, and scientific findings that may contribute to common regulatory approaches.

Specific Actions

The tripartite participants intend to undertake the following specific actions within the context of our overall cooperation framework:

1. within six months, lay out specific steps we intend to take to improve implementation of Points of Consensus;
2. against the backdrop of our respective regulatory systems, explore the possibilities of developing harmonized approaches for product traceability systems;
3. compare selected existing consumer product safety requirements in our respective jurisdictions with a goal of identifying areas for further convergence recognizing that the differentiated needs of the participants' own consumers may necessitate unique requirements;
4. where situations permit, take advantage of the experience and expertise of our various stakeholders as we pursue our joint product safety activities;
5. develop within each of the participants' organizations, advice that each may direct broadly at relevant types of manufacturers, based on product safety issues in the specific cases that are discussed in existing bilateral information processes, in particular RAPEX-China and the CPSC-AQSIQ Manufacturer Notification Procedure. The tripartite participants would then work to establish regular communications among our organizations on the advice developed and disseminated;
6. assess the steps required to move towards a "seamless surveillance" model of product safety enforcement involving cooperation between export, customs, and product safety authorities in our jurisdictions; and
7. explore the potential for organizing study or resident expert exchange visits to enhance mutual understanding among our expert staff, to the extent that resources and administrative capacity permit.

Next Trilateral Meeting

The Tripartite participants look forward to holding our next "High-Level Consumer Product Safety Trilateral Summit" in 2012 in the United States of America, the date and location to be determined.