[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
[July 18, 2007]
[Pages 981-982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With the Import Safety Working Group
July 18, 2007

    The American people expect their Government to work tirelessly to 
make sure consumer products are safe. And that is precisely what my 
administration is doing.
    I've called together key members of my Cabinet to review the 
procedures in place, the regulations in place, the practices in place to 
make sure that our food supply remains the safest in the world. The 
world is changing, and in order to make sure that we can continue to 
have the confidence of our consumers, that--we will continually review 
practices and procedures to assure the American consumer.
    And so I've asked Mike Leavitt, the 
Secretary of HHS, to lead a task group that will report back to me in 60 
days on a strategy that will review procedures in place and regulations 
in place to make sure that they're meeting the needs of a changing 
world, that part of our strategy is we work with our countries from 
which we import goods to make sure that their procedures and practices 
will give us comfort. And finally, we'll be working with companies that 
import goods from around the world to make sure that their practices 
meet the high standards that we set for the United States.
    This is a serious issue; food safety and consumer safety is a 
serious issue. We take it seriously, and we spend a lot of time on it in 
this administration. So, Michael, I want 
to thank you very much for taking on this task force. It's important for 
the American people to know their Government is on top of the situation 
and constantly reviewing procedures and practices. So thank you.

[[Page 982]]

Note: The President spoke at 2:50 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. The Executive order establishing the Interagency Working 
Group on Import Safety is listed in Appendix D at the end of this 
volume.