Companies disbursing goods into Canada would be advised to take heed of Transport Canada’s recent encroachments into regions of consumer product safety.
Much attention was compensated towards the recent Notice to Airmen from Transport Canada’s Civil Aviation unit (TSSA), effectively requiring the broadcast warning of the ban around the transport of certain mobile phones that contains volatile lithium batteries.
These constant broadcasts might have appeared unusual to air passengers, that have rather looked to Health Canada’s for product safety and recall notifications. More to the point, the TSSA recommendations also offered as notice to producers and brand proprietors of consumer products which Transport Canada has joined the fray of positively overseeing the safe carriage of private use consumer products.
Broad Forces of Transport Canada
Transport Canada has lengthy had the broad forces to issue Protective Directions associated with any goods, including consumer products, with “dangerous” content, extending beyond shipping parties themselves to the:
“person involved in the importing, offering for transport, handling or transporting of harmful goods, or offering or importing standardized way of containment”.
The targets of these Protective Directions have, however, mainly been transportation-related equipment as well as their makers and operators. Apart from the now familiar listing of products considered potential in-flight security risks, consumers as well as their personal goods happen to be largely left to Health Canada to manage.
ICAO’s Lithium Battery Cargo Bans
The modification perhaps began using the May 2016 Protective Direction from Transport Canada concerning the lithium battery as cargo on passenger flights.
The Protective Directive was needed for consistency using the Worldwide Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council ban around the transport of lithium ion batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft. (In 2014, ICAO announced an identical ban on cargo shipments on passenger aircrafts of lithium metal batteries).
Limitations upon air transport of lithium batteries, presumptively although not always as cargo, are reinforced by “special provisions” underneath the Transportation of Harmful Goods Rules codifying the ICAO Technical Guidelines changes.
From the Cargo to some Consumer Ban
What’s been novel lately is Transport Canada’s assertion of jurisdiction more than a (non-threatening) consumer good and it is brand owner who just possess the (mis)fortune from the patronage from the travelling public.
Not just would this assertion of Transport Canada authority likely be an unexpected to makers of lithium battery-that contains products, however it seems to create a part of a 2016 watershed for other consumer product regulation by Transport Canada.
New Reporting Also Extends Beyond Cargo
Inside a month of Transport Canada’s Protective Directive came Amended Transportation of Harmful Goods Rules which, while keeping the classification structure from the Un Model Rules, enforced numerous positive policing measures – some using the aftereffect of extending Transport Canada’s oversight from the personal movement of consumer goods
Most particularly, the Amended Rules impose, according of air transportation, an instantaneous reporting obligation upon any “person” for undeclared (or mis-identified) harmful goods without minimum thresholds, the targeting of conventional shipping parties or any among personal carriage and cargo.
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In a nutshell, consumers now have several exactly the same Transportation of Harmful Goods obligations, including “post-incident” reporting responsibilities, as commercial parties also it only remains viewed as to what lengths Transport Canada goes in the security and safety in carving out regulatory space inside the consumer product safety field.
Resourse: http://lexology.com/library/
