Mexico City, Mexico - U.S. Customs and Border Protection participated in the third North America Consumer Product Safety Summit, a tri-lateral conference of the consumer product safety regulating agencies of Mexico, the United States and Canada, on November 18-19 in Mexico City. CBP discussed the “One U.S. Government at the Border” trade initiative and its collaboration with U.S. federal consumer products and import safety regulating agencies, like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
“This Summit was an opportunity for enforcement and import safety agencies of North America to create a foundation to strengthen our efforts towards working together in combatting the entry of unsafe goods into our markets,” said Cynthia Whittenburg, Executive Director of the Office of Trade Policy and Programs for CBP’s Office of International Trade. “This Summit not only displayed the benefit of joint agency collaboration, but also the benefit of international cooperation.”
The Summit focused on the cooperation between Mexico, Canada, and the United States in working towards the common goal of achieving the highest level of safety for consumers across North America and to promote a global culture of product safety. CBP highlighted its ongoing collaborative efforts with CPSC through the Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC), as well as, some of the agency’s trade initiatives, such as the advancement of the International Trade Data System (ITDS), the implementation progress of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), and the development of a Single Window for all U.S. import/export requirements. The Single Window is another tool for ensuring cooperation amongst U.S. federal authorities, establishing a system for making border-related import decisions, and regulating goods crossing our nation’s borders. CBP also discussed plans to hold a similar event like the July 2015 U.S.-Canada Table Top Import Safety Exercise in Mexico in early 2016.
“CPSC and CBP have a close and productive working relationship in the U.S., but now collaborating with our international partners and together working to increase mission effectiveness, adds another layer towards protecting our shores from unsafe imports,” said Carol Cave, Deputy Director, CPSC’s Office of Compliance and Field Operations. “This Summit provided an excellent opportunity for the countries of North America to better interface and understand how we might be able to work more closely to better protect consumers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.”
The Summit, jointly conducted by CPSC, Health Canada, and the Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Profeco), also garnered participation from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT).
