Comments on: Product Liability and How to Hedge Your Risks When Private Labeling from China

By: David Bryant

David Bryant — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 10:28:50 +0000

In reply to John. I'm not sure about this particular product but I don't recall ever seeing any 'anti-dumping' tariffs regarding any clothing. A customs broker could tell you in about half a second though.

By: John

John — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:58:44 +0000

Since the subject was clothing by the last commenter, I wonder if anyone can comment about quotas, specifically cotton (product) quotas for the USA. For example, can 100% cotton, screenprinted T-shirts be imported from China? … or might cotton Tees be subject to US import quotas?

By: David Bryant

David Bryant — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 21:27:41 +0000

In reply to Helen Sawyer.

I’ve never had any problems getting product liability insurance in Canada so I can’t speak of the situation in the U.K.. And yes, it’s an unfortunate risk many importers are taking at present time by having no liability insurance. Bluntly for a product like clothing I don’t see a huge issue if an importer wants to run the risk of no liability insurance- if it’s non-children’s clothing, the risk for product liability is very slim. My bigger issue is with people importing inherently dangerous products. If you’re more afraid of putting your family’s assets at risk more than ‘ethical’ questions, you might consider incorporating your business.

By: Helen Sawyer

Helen Sawyer — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:46:47 +0000

Hi David – I find your book and website to be inspiring but am finding the whole liability issue here in the UK to be a huge problem. I’m looking to import clothing and decided that it wasn’t worth the risk of trying to operate without public and product liability. However insurers in the UK will not offer any kind of insurance policy without a ‘Right to recourse’ agreement with the supplier. Since I don’t have the resources to place large orders initially – I can’t imaging any supplier being willing to offer this sort of agreement. From my online research I found at least one other person who’d run into this problem in which case the supplier had offered his own insurance but at a very high price. However from what I’ve read here as well – it seems unlikely that the contents of a Chinese insurance policy would meet British standards. This doesn’t just apply to Asian imports apparently but to almost anywhere outside of a few European countries.
I’m amazed – firstly that this problem is hardly mentioned anywhere and secondly that so many importers seem to be operating without any legal protection. I’m also very disappointed that my dreams of an import business seem to be foundering but I’m very reluctant to put all my family’s assets at risk! Any comments would be gratefully received.
Many Thanks
Helen