Permanent Council of the Organization American States Washington, D.C. – December 10th 2014 Launch of the INTER-AMERICAN RAPID ALERTS SYSTEM CONSUMER SAFETY AND HEALTH NETWORK

What is the CSHN? Since the first mandate in 2009 and its inception in 2010, the CSHN has established itself as the only hemispheric mechanism for surveillance on consumer product safety; central aspect of trade in goods and essential for economic and social development The CSHN has enabled countries to enhance inter- sectoral collaboration, generate communities of practice and learning, and strengthen their institutional capacity

To the creation and strengthening of national surveillance systems on product safety : Training of more than 500 specialists, who are now responsible for identifying and recalling unsafe products Initiation of cooperation among national agencies and among countries Generation of laws/regulations and specialized institutional bodies, previously non-existent Facilitated the detection of alerts - over 7000 to date in the Portal To the creation of synergies : Examples: CARICOM (60 officials from 15 countries trained only last week), Central America (CONCADECO decides to: “promote and develop a rapid alerts system in Central America, harmonized and consistent with the SIAR and of the Consumer Safety and Health Network”), PARLATINO (Committe will session with the CSHN’s Plenary from 2015), MERCOSUR, among others. Contribution of the CSHN

Why a SIAR Within the CSHN? Because of the need to ensure a rapid exchange of information between Member States in order to facilitate appropriate measures to prevent, restrict to the marketing of or impose specific conditions to consumer products that carry a risk to consumers’ health and safety, with shared criteria for hemispheric alerts

What information will the SIAR contain? Public Accesso: To be published to the general public via the Web Portal Restricted Access: Available to Governmental Agencies through the SIAR Secure Access: For example, product risk assessments, laboratory studies, business information, etc. As of today the New Portal is available:

"The launch of SIAR and its software tool will consolidate the achievements reached; establishing more advanced levels of protection and information exchange. For Consumers International and its members these initiatives demonstrate the growth of the protection of consumer rights in the hemisphere and predict future developments " Consumers International