As the U.S. member body to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) seeks comments by Friday, April 5 on a proposal to reactivate ISO Project Committee 245, Cross-border trade of second-hand goods. The proposed reactivation would allow revisions to standardization work that helps protect health, safety, and the environment in which second-hand goods interact when used by consumers.
With the rapid rise of e-commerce in recent years, cross-border transactions of second-hand goods—recognized as a low cost and sustainable option—are becoming increasingly common. To that end, while expectations of second-hand goods can be somewhat lower than new goods, products must still meet basic requirements to assure consumer health and safety.
As the proposal asserts, “dangerous and unsustainable second-hand goods can find their way into the market, leading to serious health and safety risks and resource waste problems for the importing country.” Furthermore, studies have highlighted concerns about product authenticity in second-hand transactions, and how to obtain information to assure that products meet health, safety, performance, and sustainability requirements to protect consumers.
SAC, the ISO member for China, has submitted to ISO a proposal for the reactivation of ISO/PC 245, Cross-border trade of second-hand goods, to revise ISO 20245:2017 on Cross Border Trading of Second Hand Goods.
The proposal includes the following scope statement:
The scope applies to second-hand goods that are shipped across at least one international border, and where the intended end user is a consumer; it does not apply to goods that are remanufactured and rebuilt.
Read the proposal and submit comments to Steven Cornish, ANSI senior director of international policy and strategy, at [email protected] by close of business on Friday, April 5. All input ANSI receives will be used to develop the ANSI representative input to the ISO Technical Management Board.
