The White House on Wednesday ordered the formation of an import safety panel to review strategy in the wake of a series of consumer and food product scares that have raised concerns over the safety of products from China.
President George W. Bush formed the import safety working group, comprising government agencies, and asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of health and human services, to chair the group and report back in 60 days.
"The world is changing, and in order to make sure that we can continue to have the confidence of our consumers, we will continually review practices and procedures to assure the American consumer," the president said. "This is a serious issue."
Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA commissioner, this week tried to reassure a congressional committee that the FDA was acting quickly to counter any threat and was using science to monitor threats. He created the position of food protection commissioner, and said the agency was planning negotiation of two memoranda of understanding with Chinese regulators to address food, feed and medical product safety issues.
But he warned that the FDA's regulatory structure and methods were nearly 40 years old and designed for a less complex world with products sourced and made in the US rather than the "increasing volume from overseas, often from countries with emerging regulatory systems".
The White House denied that the new panel was intended specifically to monitor China and its products.
I'd be skeptical about that.
More here from MSNBC, or listen to audio from the White House here (mp3 file). White House Executive Order here.
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