Brussels, 22/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - To check whether products manufactured outside the EU respect European and international safety requirements, consumers can now consult the “GlobalRecalls Portal”. This new tool was launched on Friday 19 October in Brussels. It is a joint initiative developed by the US, the OECD, the EU, Canada and Australia to pool information about dangerous non-food products from all over the world into one single entry point. It was presented by Testori Coggi, Director-General of DG Sanco at the European Commission, Rintaro Tamaki, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD and Ms Tenenbaum, the president of the consumer products safety committee in the US, during International Product Safety Week. They all urged companies and consumers to readily use this new database and called on countries throughout the world to feed in information to the portal.
With an expected 3000 product recall notices per year and the search engine proposed for portal users, consumers, businesses and authorities will have access to a remarkable pool of information on recalled dangerous non-food products, enriched on a regular basis by the EU (through RAPEX), US, Canadian and Australian authorities.
This portal will help to enhance consumer safety and increase consumers' confidence in the products they purchase on the global market. It will facilitate the task of public regulatory bodies, consumers and companies looking for information on recalled consumer products across the world. For further information: globalrecalls.oecd.org (AN/trans/fl)