Action Plan for Import Safety A roadmap for continual improvement

 

 

Action Plan for Import Safety

A roadmap for continual improvement
The Interagency Working Group on Import Safety is pleased to submit this Action Plan
for Import Safety: A roadmap for continual improvement. In it, we detail a roadmap with
short- and long-term recommendations and action steps.
This Action Plan represents the culmination of thousands of hours of research and
analysis, as well as public comment received from hundreds of stakeholders. The
Action Plan takes the form of 14 broad recommendations and 50 specific action steps
based on Protecting the American Consumer Every Step of the Way: A strategic framework for
import safety and the Immediate Actions Memorandum presented to you on September 10,
2007.
In the last two months, significant progress has been made on the Immediate Action
Items listed in my memorandum to you accompanying the Strategic Framework. The
Office of Management and Budget has actively engaged the departments, and all
agencies are on track to accelerate their participation in the Automated Commercial
Environment / International Trade Data System. In addition, the State Department has
led a vigorous international outreach effort to communicate our import safety priorities
with our trade partners around the world. The Office of the United States Trade
Representative has moved forward with the departments and agencies to explore
existing import safety-related agreements with foreign governments and to coordinate
future agreements to benefit the United States and not merely individual agencies.
A variety of actions and plans are already underway to improve import safety. Today,
the Food and Drug Administration is releasing a new Food Protection Plan. In
September, the Consumer Product Safety Commission signed a renewed agreement
with the People’s Republic of China focused on the safety of toys, fireworks, cigarette
lighters and other targeted products. These steps, and other recent actions and
current plans, have jump-started our efforts to continually improve the safety of
products imported to the United States.
Each recommendation in this Action Plan falls under the organizing principles of
prevention, intervention and response and expands upon the building blocks identified
in the Strategic Framework. Together, the Strategic Framework and this Action Plan
provide a national strategy for continually improving the safety of imported products.
The information collected and analyzed for this Action Plan reaffirms the essential and
integrated import-safety roles of the public and private-sector. Our recommendations
pertain to all parties involved in the import life cycle, from production in the fore