Joint EC-UNCTAD workshop: Building effective consumer product safety frameworks together

The European Commission and UNCTAD hold their second workshop on consumer product safety

The United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection recognize consumers’ right of access to non-hazardous products. Following the successful first joint European Commission-UNCTAD workshop on “Kick-starting consumer product safety: a worthwhile endeavour”two issues came to the forefront for countries wishing to start building effective consumer product safety: legislative and policy frameworks; and cross-border and regional cooperation. 

UNCTAD research shows that general safety requirements and liability regimes embedded in laws, along with standards, are the cornerstone for setting up consumer product safety frameworks anywhere in the world. In parallel, cross-border and regional cooperation on product safety can bring many advantages and help use market surveillance resources more efficiently. In particular, government officials need to remain abreast of developments in neighbouring countries to ensure known unsafe consumer products are not distributed across borders into their jurisdictions, as contained in the UNCTAD recommendation on product safety.

This workshop will discuss these two basic building blocks for an effective consumer product safety framework:
•    Legal frameworks for consumer product safety: where to start?
•    Cross-border and regional cooperation: which benefits can it bring?

Registration and next steps

Note: Interpretation from and to English and French will be provided

Documents: Recommendation on preventing cross-border distribution of known unsafe consumer products