CN Message: Lacey Act Requirements

(CN via CSCB)

Reminder to all customers shipping plants and plant products to the U.S.: As previously communicated, the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced an amendment to the Lacey Act, part of the 2008 Farm Bill (also known as the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008), the enforcement of which will be phased in beginning April 2009.

The Lacey Act now makes it unlawful to:

• import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any plant, with some limited exceptions, taken in violation of the laws of a U.S. state or any foreign law that protects plants.

• make or submit any false record, account, or label for, or any false identification of, any plant.• import certain plants and plant products without an import declaration. The declaration must contain, among other things, the scientific name of the plant, value of the importation, quantity of the plant, and name of the country from where the plant was harvested. For paper and paperboard products containing recycled content, the declaration also must include the average percent of recycled content without regard for species or country of harvest.

Please ensure you review Lacey Act requirements with your U.S. customs broker. It is your customs broker’s role to ensure all information pertinent to the Lacey Act declaration is provided to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the time that release entry is filed.

Commodities affected by the Lacey Act requirements are broad in scope and include any level of plant product that may be part of the commodity or manufactured into the components of the commodity with no minimum amount exempt.

Preventable customs holds or set-outs at the border due to non-regulatory compliance will be subject to applicable CN tariff items.

The notice is available on the CN website (PDF).