The United States cannot stop the flood of illegal Chinese vape products while simultaneously choking off the legal American alternatives that could replace them. That is why Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was right to acknowledge before Congress that if the U.S. wants to get illegal Chinese vape products off the market, there must be legal, regulated American-made alternatives available for adults trying to move away from cigarettes.
Millions of Americans still smoke, and many are looking for alternatives through products such as vape devices. But when legal products spend years trapped in regulatory limbo, the government effectively hands the market to illicit foreign manufacturers more than willing to fill the void. That is exactly how dangerous, unregulated Chinese products have flooded stores and online marketplaces across the country.
What makes this even more outrageous is that many of these same products are banned or heavily restricted in China itself. China has built a multibillion-dollar export industry selling flavored vape products to U.S. consumers while refusing to allow broad legal sales domestically. American families are being treated like a dumping ground for products the Chinese government does not want widely sold to its own people.
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The FDA’s recent movement toward approving additional flavored vape product applications that have been pending for years is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. Approvals alone will not solve the problem if illegal foreign products continue flooding American communities unchecked.
This could be a major win for American consumers and for efforts to combat the illicit vape market if stronger standards accompanied those approvals. Any product authorized for sale in the United States should require final manufacturing in an FDA-inspected U.S. facility. If companies want access to the American market, they should meet American safety standards under American oversight.
At the same time, Congress has already allocated roughly $200 million toward enforcement efforts targeting illicit vape products that violate the Tobacco Control Act, particularly illegal Chinese-made products flooding the market. Federal agencies have conducted significant seizures and enforcement actions, but with estimates suggesting that as much as 80% of the vape market may consist of illicit products originating from China, the scale of the problem remains enormous and continues to affect communities across the country.
That is why stronger crackdowns on illegal vape products entering the U.S. must go hand in hand with policies that support a legal, accountable, FDA-regulated marketplace for American-made alternatives. Continuing to bury legitimate manufacturers in years of delays while illegal foreign products dominate the market is not a serious long-term strategy.
Of course, protecting children must remain nonnegotiable. Regulators should continue carefully evaluating which products and flavors may be appropriate for legal approval while maintaining strong youth protections and aggressively targeting companies that violate the law.
That balance matters. The U.S. should encourage a legal, accountable, FDA-regulated marketplace built around U.S.-inspected manufacturing facilities while aggressively enforcing the law against illegal foreign products entering our communities.
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The current system is failing on every front: illegal Chinese products continue flooding the market, legitimate manufacturers remain trapped in yearslong delays, and consumers are pushed toward an unregulated underground economy.
Protecting children, enforcing the law, reducing smoking, and supporting American manufacturing should go hand in hand, and continuing the status quo only guarantees that China will keep controlling the market.
Emily Stack is the executive director of Moms for America Action.