FOREWORD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AN AGENDA FOR ACTION

DISCUSSION PAPER, THE MINISTRY, AND THE FORUM

ISSUES, DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTION

APPENDIX 1

EXTRACTS FROM THE MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS' POLICY PAPER MANDATORY AND VOLUNTARY PRODUCT STANDARDS

Issues relevant to whether standards should be mandatory or voluntary:

• barriers to trade

• unnecessary compliance costs to businesses which may ultimately flow on to the consumer and costs of making and enforcing mandatory standards which will have to be borne by the taxpayer

• where there are a large number of suppliers, the members of an industry cannot agree on a standards or the problem is wider than the scope of a specific industry group a mandatory standard may be more appropriate

• is industry solely responsible for safety, or should the government bear some of the burden?

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs generally expects voluntary action to be taken and will only make a recommendation for mandatory standards where all the following criteria are met:

• there is a proven problem with the safety of a product

• an education or publicity campaign would be ineffective or inappropriate

• voluntary action by suppliers of the product is not possible or would be ineffective

• an unsafe goods notice or a compulsory product recall would not be sufficient to eliminate a safety problem or would be inappropriate

• cost/benefit analysis demonstrates that the benefit in making a mandatory standard outweighs the cost.