[greenyes] Different Attitudes to Regulation in US v. EU

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

 WALL STREET JOURNAL
Worlds Apart on Consumer Safety

As EU Makes It Easier
To Ban Faulty Products,
Red Tape Reigns in U.S.
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 15, 2004; Page A19

BRUSSELS -- Lighting up just got safer in Europe. But don't count on the 
U.S. to follow suit.

In April -- just three months after a new consumer-safety directive took 
effect here -- the European Union banned cheap Chinese cigarette lighters 
that Canadian and Mexican regulators already had deemed dangerous. 
Meanwhile, U.S. lighter makers' efforts to get the gadgets barred from the 
American market have gone nowhere despite three years of government safety 
testing.

The lighters saga highlights a widening divide between U.S. and European 
approaches to consumer-product safety regulation -- even when it is 
businesses rather than consumers pushing for safety rules. U.S. and European 
officials have talked about harmonizing their policing of consumer safety as 
globalization carries products far and wide, but in many ways they are going 
in opposite directions. As Europe increasingly gives regulators more clout 
and flexibility, their American counterparts remain hamstrung by a 
bureaucratic thicket that prolongs efforts to remedy all but the most 
egregious product defects.

"...

_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Ph: (608) 231-1100
Fax: (608) 233-0011
Cell: (608) 698-1314
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net

         CONFIDENTIAL
This message, and all attachments thereto,
is covered by the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C., Sections 2510-2521.
This message is CONFIDENTIAL. If you are
not the intended recipient of this message,
then any retention, dissemination, distribution
or copying of this communication is strictly
prohibited. Please notify me if you received
this message in error at anderson@no.address
and then delete it.