Foreign Manufacturers of Dangerous Products Benefit From Our Inability to Hold Them Accountable

Prof. Andrew Popper of American University, Washington College of Law, writes: "There is no mystery regarding the flood of dangerous and even deadly consumer products manufactured abroad and sold in the United States. Foreign manufacturers are not naïve. They understand the effect of state and federal laws that limit or eliminate tort liability, known, oddly enough, as tort reform. They understand the difficulty of securing a product liability judgment against a domestic wholesaler or manufacturer – and they understand that as foreign producers, they are not only shielded by tort reform but also protected by the complex web of laws, policies, and practices that make it difficult if not impossible to sue successfully foreign manufacturers in domestic courts. Stripped of the incentive value the tort system provided, it should come as no surprise that domestic consumers have been exposed to tens of millions of defective products produced by foreign suppliers." Read his white paper, Defective Foreign Products in the United States: Issues and Discussion.