APHIS Grants Grace Period for Lacey Declaration Metric Requirement
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sources have announced that the agency is granting a two-month grace period for its requirement that plant material quantities be reported on the Lacey Act declaration using standardized metric units (such as kg, m, m2, m3).
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Metric Quantity and Units Now Required Beginning Approximately July 1
As a result, the metric requirement for quantity and units of measure, for plant material listed on the Lacey Act declaration, will be enforced beginning approximately July 1, 2010 (rather than May 1, 2010).
Once enforced, APHIS will no longer accept counts of items (pieces, number, boxes, etc.) as valid units of measure.
Trade Encouraged to Use Metric as Soon as Possible
APHIS sources state that APHIS has granted the grace period in order to give the trade time to adjust to the metric quantity and units of measure requirement.
However, the trade should use metric units of measure for plant material quantities on the Lacey Act declaration as soon as they are able to, rather than waiting for the grace period to end, in order to assist APHIS in its effort to create a uniform dataset.
Notice of Grace Period Expected to be Posted Soon
Sources expect a notice regarding this grace period to be posted to the APHIS website soon.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/10/10 news, (Ref: 10051005), for BP summary of APHIS notice on metric requirement. See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/06/10 and 05/05/10 news, (Ref: 10050605), and (Ref: 10050505), for earlier, related summaries.)
Notice to be posted at APHIS Lacey Act Webpage: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/lacey_act/index.shtml