. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/W/333 
19 November 2010 
 (10-6209) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
FINAL REPORTS OF APEC TOY SAFETY INITIATIVE  
 
Submission from the United States
 
   The following communication, dated 18 November 2010, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of the United States
. 
 
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I. BACKGROUND 
1. The United States notes the interests of Members expressed in the "Fifth Triennial Review of 
the Operation and Implementation of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade Under Article 15.4" (G/TBT/26) regarding sharin g experiences relating to regulatory  cooperation (paragraphs 14, 15 
and 16), conformity assessment (paragraph 18), standa rds (paragraph 23) and technical assistance (57, 
58 and 59).  Accordingly, the United States would lik e to bring the Committee's attention three reports 
of the APEC Toy Safety Initiative.  
- Report of the Regulator Dialogue on Toy Safety  August 2009
1 
- Report of the Open Dialogue on Toy Safety for All Stakeholders , January, 20102 
- Presentation on the Results of the  Toy Safety Survey , March 2010.3 
2. Led by the United States and cosponsored by Chile, China, Japan, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei 
and Viet Nam, the APEC Toy Safety Initiative was a two-year project launched by the APEC 
Subcommittee on Standards and C onformance (SCSC).  The aim of the Toy Safety Initiative was to 
improve toys safety practices while reducing techni cal barriers to trade, including through better 
alignment of international toy safety standa rds and conformity assessment practices.   
3. Approximately 300 people from 20 of the 21 APEC economies, including representatives 
from business, regulatory agencies, standards bodi es, conformity assessment bodies, and consumer 
groups, participated in this Initiative.  The majo r elements of the project included a survey and 
mapping of all APEC economy toy regulations, a " Regulator’s Dialogue"  on the margins of the 
APEC Senior Officials meeting in Singapore in August 2009, and an " Open Dialogue for All 
Stakeholders " in January 2010 on the margins of the Hong Kong Toy Fair.  Stakeholders representing 
several WTO Members that are not members of  APEC also participated actively in the Open 
Dialogue  in Hong Kong. Agendas, presentations and other documents of the APEC Toy Safety 
Initiative are available at on the Toy Association website.4 
                                                      
1 http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/PDFs/Safe ty/APECMeeting/Regulator_dialogue.pdf . 
2 http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/PDFs/Safe ty/APECMeeting/Open_dialogue_report.pdf . 
3 http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/PDFs/Sa fety/APECMeeting/Survey_Results.pdf . 
4 www.toyassociation.org  G/TBT/W/333 
Page 2  
 
  4. Key outcomes of the APEC Toy Safety Initiative include: 
- The APEC Toy Safety Survey, completed by all 21 APEC economies.  
- A pledge by ASTM International and ISO to  support greater technical cooperation and an 
agreement to hold future joint meetings.   
- The establishment of the ISO Advisory Panel to  determine priorities for the ISO Technical 
Committee on Toys, which will facilitate incr eased cooperation among toy standard setting 
bodies in the interest of promoting standard s alignment and avoiding further divergences 
among major toy standards.   
 
II. NEXT STEPS 
5. The United States continues to engage with regul ators, standards developers and industry to 
build upon the APEC Leaders’ goal:  "to strengthe n consumer product safety standards and practices 
in the region, using scientific risk-based appr oaches and without creating unnecessary impediments to 
trade".  Regulatory officials will reconvene to re view progress on the APEC Toy Safety Initiative at 
International Consumer Product H ealth and Safety Organization (IC PHSO) events in 2011 and 2012.  
In addition, the United States continues to excha nge information and support related-work in other 
organizations, such as the OECD and ISO COPOLC O.  We welcome further discussion on the APEC 
Toy Safety Initiative, including lessons learned,  at the TBT Committee Workshop on Regulatory 
Cooperation to be he ld on 22-23 March 2011. 
 
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