Federal consumer protection agencies in the three major North American countries have signed an agreement affirming their intent to cooperate in protecting their nations’ citizens from unsafe products.
The trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Department of Health Canada (Health Canada) and the Consumer Protection Federal Agency of the United Mexican States (PROFECO) was signed in February at the annual meeting of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO). The MOU is expected to help formalize current cooperative efforts between the three agencies and to facilitate future regulatory cooperation and technical exchanges among product safety authorities.
In a press release announcing the agreement, the CPSC referenced as an example of such joint efforts a recent project in which experts from the three agencies analyzed and recommended specific testing solutions for previously unaddressed hazards from wall outlet chargers for small electronic products. The CPSC notes that this effort will be expanded under the MOU to include other product areas, thereby more broadly aligning the agencies’ respective approaches to safety.
