The General Assembly,
CONSIDERING the protection of consumers from potentially dangerous products to be a laudable goal;
OBSERVING that the Consumer Product Safety Council is given the authority to unilaterally declare a product unsafe, and thus illegal to import or export;
LAMENTING that no appellate system exists through which manufacturers can appeal a commercial ban on their product;
NOTING that GAR#139 states, in relevant part:
“DEFINES an ‘unsafe consumer product’ as any consumer product that can pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure a consumer while used properly and according to age / training / safety requirements;”
CONCERNED that the aforementioned definition may prohibit and, at minimum, unnecessarily restrict the commercial trade of common products such as matches, lighters, vehicles, electronic appliances, certain forms of medication, and firearms;
REGRETTING that the Consumer Product Safety Council is charged with seeking financial compensation and legal recourse from manufacturers that produce appliances such as the ones listed above, which will serve as a further financial disincentive for the production of such products;
DISPUTING the notion that GAR#139 “will promote a higher level of consumer safety on an international level, leading to a decline in injuries and deaths associated with consumer products,” taking the aforementioned arguments into consideration,
Hereby,
Repeals General Assembly Resolution #139, “Consumer Product Safety.”