Building safety into the system

Our consumer safety standards are among the highest in the world, and our food supply is among the safest in the world. But changes in the global economy mean we must now update and upgrade our import safety controls. The president’s Interagency Working Group on Import Safety has taken the first step, charting a course for future improvements that will assure Americans the degree of safety they expect.

As chairman of the Working Group, I’ve been to ports, post offices, railheads and airports. I’ve seen freight hubs, border crossings, wholesalers, retailers and fruit stands. I have observed the processing of fish, vegetables and drugs. I’ve inspected everything from imported tire irons to gingerbread houses.

The sheer volume of imports is staggering. Visit any grocery store, and you are likely to find bananas from Guatemala, pineapples from Costa Rica, turkey wings from Canada, salmon from China and snapper from Vietnam. Those are just the edible imports. We also import clothing, toys, automobiles, aircraft parts, electronics, furniture and scores of other products.

The total value of imports to the U.S. is expected to exceed $2 trillion this year. That’s nearly twice the size of the economy of Brazil and roughly equal to the economies of France and Italy. Imports are expected to triple by 2015.

The federal government cannot and should not attempt to physically inspect every product that enters the United States. Doing so would bring international trade to a standstill. It would also divert limited resources from those imported goods that pose the greatest risk.

Instead, we need to work with importers toward fundamental change in our import strategy. We need to shift from an intervention-based regime to a risk-based approach, focused on prevention with verification.

Instead of only doing spot checks at the border, we need to ensure that quality and safety are built into every point in the manufacturing process. We need to use technology to screen everything and inspect where the problems are most likely to be.

Some agencies and industries are already making this shift to a risk-based strategy. The manager of a lettuce processing plant told me their motto was, “Know your grower.” That meant knowing when and where the lettuce was picked, what nutrients went into the soil, what it was watered with, and anything else affecting the quality of the lettuce.

In its first report to the president, the working group defined the vision, laying out six building blocks of the new strategy. They included adopting a common vision, increasing enforcement and deterrence, focusing on life-cycle risks, building interoperable systems, encouraging a culture of collaboration, and promoting technological innovation.

Interoperability is especially important to a risk-based strategy. The Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 already requires all federal agencies that license, permit or certify imported products to participate in the development of a single-window system. That development has begun, with an implementation date of 2011.

We have recommended to the president that we accelerate development so the new system can be fully operable by 2009. This would require that 34 federal agencies involved in development begin to accelerate their efforts. The Office of Management and Budget has issued a directive outlining what needs to take place in this new timetable.

As a next step, the working group will solicit comment from the public. By mid-November, we will provide the president a follow-up action plan with short- and long-term recommendations on improving product safety.

With this additional input, we will have a better idea what the costs will be. As the volume and value of imports increase, the complexity of the systems will also increase, and so will the cost to both the public and the private sector for ensuring import safety. The strategic framework we have presented to the president aims to make the most efficient use of resources to provide the greatest protection to the American consumers.

We are already reaching beyond our borders to build prevention with verification into the process. We’re offering the world our product safety expertise. We’re telling producers: If you want to produce for American consumers, you must meet the standards of safety and quality that Americans expect. Producers that won’t will find their products shunned by the world market.

The American people have a reasonable expectation that food and other products they buy are reliable and safe. With new technology and a new strategy for our globalizing economy, we can and will continue to meet that expectation.

Leavitt is the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Special section: Healthcare

Healthcare must be a right, not a privilege, in America
Patient-centered healthcare — at the crossroads
The forgotten victims of September 11 — suffering from Ground Zero toxins
Building safety into the system
Bush declares war on bipartisan bill to provide health insurance to children
Stop an invisible attack on our nation’s health
Pass the Healthy Americans Act
A worthwhile prescription: expanding, not dismantling, healthcare coverage
The National Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Week observed