Regulators Near Compromise on Lacey Act Enforcement

(American Shipper – Eric Kulisch)

Situation still fluid as agencies still taking feedback and hashing out details on new wood product regulations.

Federal agencies involved in implementing a new requirement for documenting all wood or plant-based imports have reached preliminary consensus with industry groups on a compromise intended to calm the fears of importers nervous about their ability to comply, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture official.

Lawmakers included a provision in this summer’s Farm Bill amending the Lacey Act, which regulates trade in fish and wildlife, designed to stem the flow of goods made from illegally harvested wood. Under the law, importers face a December 15 deadline to begin filing declarations specifying the scientific name and species of any wood or plant material contained in a product, and the country of harvest.

The broad nature of the act has many international traders worried that even products with trace amounts of wood byproduct would be covered, leaving them flailing for ways to obtain the information from their overseas suppliers. They envision an administrative nightmare heightened by the prospect that U.S. Customs and the USDA were prepared to require the use of paper documents, erasing the benefit of the efficient electronic process most importers use to file their customs entries.

Customs and Border Protection and the Agriculture Department’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have nearly completed an implementation plan that would phase in the requirements for the production of the declaration, officials at both agencies said.

Under the preliminary plan, which still needed to be signed off on by key lawmakers and committees on Capitol Hill, the act would be implemented in stages. During the first phase, covering the period between December 15 and April 1, 2009, submission of the paper plant declaration will be voluntary. Importers will be required to file the information after April 1, but in electronic form – although the paper option will remain available.

“We realize that trade is done electronically and that analysis of the data is best done electronically. We’re working hard to make that available on April 1,” Alex Belano, assistant branch chief for commodity, import and analysis at APHIS, told American Shipper.

Belano said the USDA and CBP will use the time until April to meet with industry groups and disseminate information about the compliance program as it is developed.

Phase two is also limited to the most obvious wood and plant-related items, such as flooring, furniture, paperboard and plywood, while deferring enforcement of gray areas involving processed wood byproducts until the scope of the Lacey Act can be administratively or legislatively narrowed a bit, Belano said. Read the complete article.