Protecting Consumers In the EU market from dangerous imports Mike - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Protecting Consumers

In the EU market from dangerous imports

Mike Turner, International Paper

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

Dangerous goods in the EU market

Who are the stakeholders?

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 1. The consumer:
• EU standards are there to protect health & safety of consumer
• 2. The foodservice & packaging chain:
• For suppliers/manufacturers/distributors/retailers, there are legal
• bligations as well as business/commercial/reputational interests
• 3. Enforcement authorities:
• Customs agents and market surveillance authorities have a legal

duty to ensure EU standards are respected

Dangerous goods in the EU market

What enforcement authorities say

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

Customs and market surveillance agents:

• We have to check trillions of goods entering the EU
• This isn’t possible so we use risk-based approach to identify an

stop dangerous goods

• You can help us do our job by providing specific information that

would help us identify dangerous goods EU policy makers:

• We have a duty to improve enforcement and are working on it
• legislative proposal to improve existing system very close to final

stage

What can Pack2Go Europe do to ensure better protection of consumers in the EU market?

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

What can Pack2Go Europe do?

Find evidence of breach of EU standards in EU market

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 1. Preliminary/internal findings suggest there may be:
• Foreign manufacturers use recycled fibre in a way that violates EU

standards when producing paper cups

What can Pack2Go Europe do?

Find evidence of breach of EU standards in EU market

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 2. Back up claim of non-compliance with 3rd-party certified evidence:
• As things stand Pack2Go Europe does not have the resources to

conduct appropriate study

• To pursue this course further, the Association would need to find

potential sponsors or partners to finance such a study

What can Pack2Go Europe do?

Collaborating with the right stakeholders

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 1. The consumer and 2. The foodservice & packaging chain:
• When communicating with the outside world, we must be careful

not to run afoul of anti-trust/competition rules

• 3. Enforcement authorities:
• Customs agents and market surveillance authorities have a legal

duty to ensure EU standards are respected and we have not yet fully explored this option

What can Pack2Go Europe do?

Working with enforcement authorities

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 1. Customs agents & market surveillance authorities
• We already made a few first contacts
• We already know of some ways we can help them

a) Making sure our standards feature on customs checklists b) Providing easy ways to test for compliance with the relevant standards

What can Pack2Go Europe do?

Working with enforcement authorities

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 2. EU Policy makers – The European Commission:
• We already made a few first contacts
• We already know some of the legal avenues to pursue. Among
• thers, we can lobby the Commission to:

a) develop new specific legislation that strengthens the enforcement

• f essential requirements for foodservice packaging

b) develop new specific legislation defining procedures to check imports of specific foodservice package (even from specific source) c) develop more specific legislation harmonising EU standards for certain materials to come into contact with food (plastics have own rules, paper not yet…)

What can Pack2Go Europe do?

What do we need?

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

• 1. Identifying the most strategic/cost-effective route
• Of the many options we still have, we want to make sure we can

get a result effectively

• 2. Individual members that can dedicate time to make this a success
• We have already laid the foundation for this work, but we need

individuals that are willing to commit time to ensure that this project is carried out successfully

• We will also be asking this of members who might join our

Association

Thank you for your attention

Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London