House Passes Bill to Catch Dangerous Imported Products
Public Citizen Supports Increased Import Safety Inspections, Lauds Passage of the “Consumer Product Safety Inspection Enhancement Act”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed H.R. 8134, the Consumer Product Safety Inspection Enhancement Act, which will enhance Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) inspection of the more than one million-per-day e-commerce shipments that currently enter the U.S. under “de minimis” rules that skirt normal Customs procedures, including safety inspections. More information about this problem is available in Public Citizen’s congressional testimony here. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch released the following statement:
“Right now, American consumers shopping online are being exposed to a flood of counterfeit and dangerous products with none of the more than one million packages a day coming in from China alone getting inspected thanks to a de minimis rule that lets such shipments skirt normal Customs procedures. This legislation will require safety inspectors be posted at the ports of entry where now hundreds of millions of uninspected packages enter and head to U.S. consumers who ordered goods online.
Public Citizen thanks U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) for her leadership on this issue and calls on U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring this bill protecting American consumers to the Senate floor for a vote.”
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