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Bilateral cooperation

The EU has direct relations on product safety with its main international partners, such as the USA, China, Canada and Japan.

United States

Given the EU-U.S. strong trade relationship and the similarities tetween the two markets, consumers and authorities on both sides of the Atlantic fact similar product safety issues. Likewise, the growth of e-commerce, the expansion of new technologies, the globalisation of production and retail sales, and specific needs of vulnerable consumer groups pose the same challenges to product safety on both sides of the Atlantic. These trends nave been further amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Against this background, and based on their shared values, in April 2022, the European Commission launched an infromal dialogue on consumer product safety with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to further strengthen a long standing, fruitful cooperation.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)

China

In 2022, China was the largest partner for EU imports of goods (20.8 %). Around half of the notifications in the EU Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products (Safety Gate) concerns products of Chinese origin. According to the Commission’s annual report on the Safety Gate, this figure was exactly 50% in 2022. The EU-China formal cooperation on product safety was established in 2006 with a Memorandum of Understanding which established a framework for improved collaboration on product safety in order to better protect the health and safety of consumers in the EU. The Memorandum also set up the ‘RAPEX-China system’ (currently ‘EU-China Safety Gate system’) that facilitates regular transmission of selected data between the EU and China on dangerous products of Chinese origin found on the EU markets and notified on the Safety Gate.

Due to institutional changes on both sides, the Memorandum of Understanding has been recently renewed in the form of an Administrative Arrangement.

With the rapid growth of e-commerce, one of the biggest challenges remains the safety of products sold online. At the High-Level Digital Dialogue in 2020, the EU and China agreed to draw up an Action Plan on the safety of products sold online, which is also one of the priorities in the New Consumer Agenda. The objective of the Action Plan is to further enhance the safety dialogue and cooperation with the Chinese authorities on products sold online in order to improve consumer protection.

The Action Plan was signed and then announced at the High-Level Digital Dialogue on 18 September 2023.

General publications19 January 2024
Administrative Arrangement - China

Administrative Arrangement between the Directorate General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission and the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China

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General publications19 January 2024
Action plan on the safety of non-food consumer products sold online - China

Action plan on the safety of non-food consumer products sold online between the Directorate General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission and the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China

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Information exchange system on dangerous products

The EU-China Safety Gate system facilitates regular and rapid transmission of data between the EU and China on dangerous products of Chinese origin found in the EU (and notified on Safety Gate).GACC investigates the notifications it receives and, when necessary, adopts measures which prevent or restrict further export of the specific hazardous products to the EU.

Safe non-food consumer Products in the EU and China (SPEAC) 

The SPEAC  project aims at raising awareness among Chinese companies (manufacturers, exporters, distributors, online marketplaces and other actors in the supply chain) about  EU product safety and consumer protection rules through information and training activities in China.

Following the successful first phase of the project (2019- 2022) that resulted in a comprehensive series of training events, the setup of an e-learning platform and a compendium of EU product safety rules, the second phase is set to run until November 2025.

Discover more on www.speac-project.eu

QR Code SPEAC

 

Canada

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement envisages cooperation and information exchange between the Parties in the area of non-food product safety. 

Based on an administrative arrangement of November 2018, the Parties developed an automated exchange of information on dangerous non-food consumer products between the EU’s Safety Gate/RAPEX system and Health Canada’s RADAR system. The exchange includes non-public information on dangerous products and enforcement measures taken on both sides of the Atlantic.

​​​​​​In addition, both jurisdictions collaborate on awareness-raising initiatives. Three coordinated communication campaigns (on button batteries, toy recalls and pool safety) took place in 2019-2021.

In the area of market surveillance, a pilot coordinated market surveillance activity (on heavy metals in children’s jewellery) took place in 2020-2021.