Safety at the Speed of Life- Blog 3

I ended my last post in this series by introducing the need to develop new tools and strategies to ensure the safety of the products we import for American consumers.

A year ago, President Bush directed a working group of his Cabinet to conduct a comprehensive review of our import safety practices. He appointed me Chair. Our review involved teams from throughout the federal government, with extensive help from the private sector. We conducted the most complete policy review ever on this subject by our government.

In my role as Chair, I visited ports and post offices, freight hubs and fruit stands, supermarkets and seaports. I listened, probed, toured, and took in the totality of America’s import system.

I met with leaders from India, Vietnam, People’s Republic of China, Australia, Mexico, Canada, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Singapore, the largest economies of the European Union and the European Commission to discuss import safety.

The scale and complexity of global commerce amazed me. So did the need for change. We provided a comprehensive report to the President; the most important thing we said was this:

Mr. President,

We have a good system of product safety today, but it is not adequate for the future and we need a fundamental change in our strategy.

In the past we have stood at our borders attempting to apprehend products that don’t meet our expectations.

We cannot inspect our way to product safety without bringing trade to a standstill. Our new strategy must be to extend our borders and ensure that quality and safety are built into the products we import.

We will do this by rewarding producers that have products certified to meet our standards. Their goods will receive expedited entry into our country.

We will make clear to those who don’t that they can expect enhanced scrutiny.

You can read the report and the 50 specific recommendations we made at importsafety.gov. They are important, but the real transformation comes from the change in our basic strategy. I will share an example in my next entry of how a change in strategy can improve safety.

Comments

Mr. Secretary, I like your suggested solutions to this problem.

One question. How do we make sure that the workers from another country are correctly applying the rules of inspection that we set?

ST

Posted by: Science Teacher | July 23, 2008 at 10:45 AM

Thank you for being so concerned about our product safety and inspection procedures of products coming from other countries........this is now becoming a serious health issue.....I hope the President reviews your report very carefully.

Posted by: Vectorpedia (Rick) | July 23, 2008 at 01:06 PM

Dear Mr Leavitt;
I went to the articles you reference to look at the strategic framework. It is a complex process, and when one recognizes the complexity and myriad combinations of countries who import/export with not only the U.S. but the rest of the world, it becomes important to set a global standard.

Sounds like pay for performance , but countries who do not meet the standards of tracking should be penalized, likewise those who do meet the standard should be rewarded in some way.

I think being able to track produce and imports is a major priority...in today's world everything should be bar coded or RFIDed. Prevention is critical, but when the system breaks down and we have salmonella or e.coli outbreaks that cannot be traced...that is really dangerous.
This also applies to domestic products.
If we want seasonal produce year round from other parts of the world or country we should be more cautious.

Posted by: Gary Levin | July 24, 2008 at 02:18 PM