China and the European Union recently signed an agreement that should lead to improved product safety in consumer products imported from China. That was reconfirmed during the Second European Meeting and Training Symposium of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO) on November 10, 2005 in Arnhem. This meeting was sponsored by KEMA. China has already reached a similar agreement with the United States.

The theme of the ICPHSO meeting was how to improve the safety of consumer products worldwide. KEMA also contributed to the discussions. Toke Reijs (KEMA) spoke during one of the roundtable discussions about the opportunities companies throughout the supply chain have to improve the (electrical) safety of their products and the related processes. Moreover, she touched upon the support KEMA can offer to these companies. ‘Everyone in the supply chain must make a contribution. Each has its own responsibility to provide sound, and especially safe, products. Manufacturers, distributors, importers, retailers and governments. And don't forget: organizations, such as KEMA, that can oversee the quality throughout the entire supply chain. It is therefore a positive development that the United States, China and Europe have established agreements to improve the quality and safety of products’.

‘It can be safer’
The fact that there is room for improvement is clear from the market research that KEMA regularly performs. Reijs: ‘The instruction manuals can be clearer, so the consumer at least understands how a device works. Or the assembly must be more substantial, so a product doesn't fall apart after it has been used twice. And very important: it can be safer. Especially electrically safer.’

Product safety appears to be a very current theme that is taken very seriously. It was not without good reason that officials from China, the United States and the European Union were present at the meeting: Vice-Minister Ge Zirong of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China; Hal Stratton, Chairman of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission and Robert Madelin, Director General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission. The meeting was opened by André Kleinmeulenman, Inspector-General of the Dutch Food and Consumer Safety Authority and KEMA CEO Pier Nabuurs.