Consumer Protection in an Era of Globalization

IMPORT SAFETY: REGULATORY GOVERNANCE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, Cary Coglianese, Adam Finkel & David Zaring, eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009

U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 11-10

20 Pages Posted: 25 Mar 2011

See all articles by Cary Coglianese

Cary Coglianese

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Adam M. Finkel

University of Michigan School of Public Health

David T. Zaring

University of Pennsylvania - Legal Studies Department

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

With expanding global trade, the challenge of protecting consumers from unsafe food, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products has grown increasingly salient, necessitating the development of new policy ideas and analysis. This chapter introduces the book, Import Safety: Regulatory Governance in the Global Economy, a multidisciplinary project analyzing import safety problems and an array of innovative solutions to these problems. The challenge of protecting the public from unsafe imports arises from the sheer volume of global trade as well as the complexity of products being traded and the vast number of inputs each product contains. It is further compounded by the fact that as products move across jurisdictional boundaries regulators face a host of legal, cultural, and practical obstacles. We argue that import safety problems require rethinking domestic regulation, whether through improving the targeting of traditional government inspections, building stronger public-private partnerships, or making changes in products liability standards. International cooperation will also be needed but will be even more challenging. At every step in the supply chain, regulators face questions of what level of safety to aim for, what form of regulatory standards to adopt, and how compliance with such standards should be monitored and enforced – and yet different countries tend to answer these questions differently. This chapter not only raises the key questions regulators and the public confront in tackling a vexing global challenge, but it also previews Import Safety’s analysis of institutional capacity and a range of potential regulatory responses that can harness market actors to drive improvements in product safety.

Keywords: international trade and regulation, safety of imports, product liability and safety regulation, regulation of foreign manufacturers, consumer law and policy, regulatory standards, compliance, enforcement

JEL Classification: D18, F19, F42, K13, K23, L65

Suggested Citation

Coglianese, Cary and Finkel, Adam M. and Zaring, David T., Consumer Protection in an Era of Globalization (2009). IMPORT SAFETY: REGULATORY GOVERNANCE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, Cary Coglianese, Adam Finkel & David Zaring, eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009 , U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 11-10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1788921

Cary Coglianese (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School ( email )

3501 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
215-898-6867 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.upenn.edu/coglianese

Adam M. Finkel

University of Michigan School of Public Health ( email )

1415 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029
United States

David T. Zaring

University of Pennsylvania - Legal Studies Department ( email )

3730 Walnut Street
Suite 600
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365
United States

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