Government Ups Efforts Against Unsafe Imports

President Bush responded yesterday to a series of incidents involving safety problems with imported products by creating a multi-agency "Working Group" to identify the steps necessary to ensure the safety of all goods imported into the United States.

Created by an executive order, the Working Group will he headed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt, and is charged with reporting on its progress to President Bush within 60 days.

"The mission of the Working Group shall be to identify actions and appropriate steps that can be pursued, within existing resources, to promote the safety of imported products," states the executive order.

The action stemmed partially from a batch of Food and Drug Administration recalls issued in late June on seafood and toys imported from China and the discovery earlier this year of the presence of melamine in pet foods from China.

"This is a serious issue -- food safety and consumer safety is a serious issue," said President Bush in announcing the executive order. " We take it seriously and we spend a lot of time on it in this administration."

A record $1.86 trillion worth of goods were imported into the U.S. in 2006.

Also See:
What is an Executive Order?
About the Food and Drug Administration
About the Consumer Product Safety Commission