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

Dangerous goods in the EU market What enforcement authorities say 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 Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

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 1. Preliminary/internal findings suggest there may be: • Foreign manufacturers use recycled fibre in a way that violates EU standards when producing paper cups 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 2. Back up claim of non-compliance with 3 rd -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 Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

What can Pack2Go Europe do? Collaborating with the right stakeholders 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 Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

What can Pack2Go Europe do? Working with enforcement authorities 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 Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

What can Pack2Go Europe do? Working with enforcement authorities 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 others, we can lobby the Commission to: a) develop new specific legislation that strengthens the enforcement of 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…) Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

What can Pack2Go Europe do? What do we need? 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 Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London

Thank you for your attention Pack2Go Europe Spring meeting 2015 3-4-5 June – The Landmark, London