New GAO Report Concludes CPSC Needs Better Plan to Protect Consumers;

Chinese Drywall Highlights Problems with Oversight of Imports

According to a new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) lacks a long-term plan to prevent entry of unsafe foreign products into the country. The report talks about how the agency relies heavily on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to identify potentially unsafe products, even though CBP is responsible for enforcing regulations from 45 other federal agencies, including antiterrorism and trade responsibilities. The Washington Post and Sarasota Herald-Tribune covered the report.

GAO has a few other suggestions to help the agency deal with imported products, including expediting implementation of key provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) passed last year and examining shipment data in advance of incoming shipments, like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does for all the food the agency has jurisdiction over.

The GAO report recognizes the CPSC was designed as a complement to tort law, saying the threat of legal action plays an important role in assuring that companies produce safe products. The report discusses jurisdiction problems with holding foreign manufacturers accountable in U.S. courts, and suggests requiring foreign manufacturers to consent to U.S. jurisdiction could expedite CPSC’s enforcement process by eliminating those challenges. The Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 (S. 1606), introduced earlier this month, would help eliminate some of the jurisdictional challenges the GAO report discusses.

The legislation, introduced by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) requires manufacturers to have an “agent” located in the U.S. that would accept service of process for any civil and regulatory claims, thereby consenting to state and federal jurisdiction.

This week the CPSC is scheduled to go to China to investigate toxic drywall that was used in as many as 100,000 homes in the U.S. The drywall emits a sulfur odor that causes numerous health problems and corrosion of electrical appliances in homes, rendering the homes basically worthless. To date, the CPSC has not released any findings on the drywall, and the GAO report demonstrates the complexity of the problems the agency faces tracking defective products once they have entered the stream of commerce. Key findings from the CPSC’s investigation of the Chinese drywall are due in September.