North American exports: helping manufacturers and wholesalers to minimise risk

With the implementation of trading tariffs between the USA and UK creating complexity for businesses who export to North America, we understand that for manufacturers and wholesalers, it might feel like a tumultuous time to do business.

As an insurance broker, you will naturally want to support your clients in managing their risks effectively, and at Geo we want to help you to ensure you and they have the relevant information to hand that helps you to do just that.

When it comes to protecting assets and managing any risk of litigation from personal injury or damage to property, we asked our expert team to provide a checklist of aspects that they would recommend considering when exporting to the USA, to ensure that things can run as smoothly as possible.

Products should be CE marked

The CE mark indicates that a product meets EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements. It is required for products that are marketed in the EU, but is also a good indication that the product meets high standards and means it has been assessed by a professional body.  

Set out a written quality control procedure

Having a clear quality control procedure ensures that your products are all made to the same standard and consistency, which means you can reduce the risk of different problems occurring and feel confident that if issues do occur, you can manage them efficiently across your product lines.

Establish a formal customer complaints/incident reporting procedure

With a formal reporting procedure, it’s easy to see trends which means you can identify and take action against any potential widespread issues more quickly than if you did not have a procedure in place. This would allow you to implement product recalls, for example, more efficiently.

With no way of recording, you may be more likely to miss something which could mean, for example, that multiple incidents occur, instead of just one or two.

Research and comply with all relevant US standards, and document this research

In the event you are the subject of litigation, it is important that you can demonstrate that you have researched the standards you are expected to comply with. This could reduce the likelihood that someone could be successful when suing you.

Warning labels should be in accordance with US Standard ANSI Z 535.4

The ANSI z535.4 standard for product safety signs, offers guidance for manufacturers and wholesalers on the design, application, use and placement of safety signs and labels on a wide range of items.

Err on the side of caution, and assume that your product may require a safety or warning label of some kind – for example, knives would require a label to warn users that they are sharp. You may be forgiven for assuming common sense should apply, however the courts may disagree, so we would suggest checking this thoroughly.

Maintain Rights of Recourse if selling on a product

If you were to wholesale a product, and there was an issue that triggered a claim, it’s important that you have Rights of Recourse in place to protect you from being held liable.

This would mean that if the error was made by the manufacturer, you would be able to pass the claim onto them. Without Rights of Recourse in place, you may need to handle the claim yourself.

Ensure Products Liability is in place if selling to a supplier in the USA

Similarly to Rights of Recourse, this protects you from claims that are not caused by your product, but by other products that could be linked to yours by the supplier.

For example, if you were producing microchips which a supplier then used within a mobile phone, and that phone short circuited, without Products Liability this issue could come back to you.