US panel urges 'smarter' tracking of risky imports

WASHINGTON, Sep 11 (Reuters) A Bush administration import safety panel yesterday urged government agencies to pool resources to focus on the riskiest products in a ''fundamental change'' in import monitoring following a spate of tainted or unsafe goods from China.

The panel headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt told President George W Bush in a report that inspecting all of the 2 trillion of imports that enter the United States each year would slow international trade and divert attention away from the riskiest products.

''Instead, we have to be smarter about what we do,'' said the report of the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety.

The report by officials of 12 US government agencies follows months of unsettling discoveries and recalls of unsafe children's toys, chemical-laced toothpaste, and dangerous additives in pet food and seafood -- all from China.

''The recent dangers found in some imported products are warning signs to us. They're warning signs that our present system is not keeping pace,'' Leavitt told reporters.

He said the panel, launched in July, recommended a ''fundamental change'' in handling imports, shifting from one-off US border checks and punishments to targeted controls at the riskiest stages of production, transport and distribution.

The report calls current inspections a ''snapshot'' approach and says that should be replaced by a ''video'' process that follows a product from factory to consumer.

60-DAY REVIEW PERIOD Leavitt likened the new strategy to applying the concept of ''preventative medicine'' to imported products.

Key pillars of the new strategy are to ensure US government agencies who share authority over food safety collaborate and use interoperable computers and other monitoring systems; to boost accountability, enforcement and deterrence; and to promote the use of the newest technologies and science, he said.

The report will undergo a 60-day review period, including an all-day hearing on Oct. 1 at the Agriculture Department to gather suggestions from the public.

Leavitt's panel -- which includes officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture Department and other agencies -- will then produce a more detailed plan in November.

Leavitt -- who toured ports, customs offices and processing plants in 17 U.S. cities -- said details on new budgetary and manpower requirements would be contained in the November plan.

While most of the problematic products have come from China, Leavitt said the recommendation did not single out the Chinese, who have a large delegation of officials in Washington for product safety talks that open on Monday.

Of a projected 2.2 trillion dollar in imports into the United States in 2007, China will account for about 341 billion dollars, second only to Canada, according to U.S. customs data.

REUTERS PJ KP828