I met a woman recently who showed me the cutest dresses for
babies, so cute in fact, that I was “gushing” over how cute one sample dress
was!
Aesthetics aside, I quickly realized that like most new
importers, this aspiring one of babies wear had much to learn about lawfully
importing into the US. All consumer products are subject to
compliance with the rules laid out by US federal agencies, whether it is related to food (for
which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA)
has oversight), clothing (which has multiple agencies overseeing the product,
and for which the requirements may change depending upon the nature of the
product), or any other product.
It is important to note that any article being imported into
the US must also
comply with US Customs own guidelines.
Additional agency rules on apparel come into play thereafter, such as the
Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rule on the disclosure of fiber content, or
the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) tracking label requirement on
children’s products.
As US Customs is the “watchdog” for compliance with other
federal agency requirements at the border, products that are not compliant with
it’s product specific rules run the risk of being held up at the border,
directed to be re-exported, or even worse, seized by the US
government.
All of these rules are not only applicable at importation
but in the case of clothing, they should also be known by those interested in
manufacturing, distributing, selling, and for certain products, even offering
to sell these articles.
So for those of you interested in buying a business or even
just buying products from distributors here in the USA, remember, the goods you
sell must be compliant too with federal and state regulations or you can be at
risk of fines and penalties from the different federal and state agencies.
Questions/comments?
Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
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