A Happy Medium
What you can do: Understand that with all the testing and re-testing going on, there might be some unforeseen limitations in terms of product availability.
2. Check warehoused products. "We … [had] procedures in place to ensure all of our products met all federal standards before the CPSIA was enacted," noted Larry Whitney, manager, trade compliance at Leed's. Though the proactive effort from one of the industry's largest suppliers can ease distributors' fears, there was a modicum of confusion early on regarding warehoused products. Federal courts, said Soep, had to issue a ruling that existing inventory must also be tested, "because there's the danger that you could have several hundred thousand pieces sitting in current inventory that are not compliant, but you're going to say they are because the new production line of that item is," he added.