APHIS Issues ANPR to Address Problems with Lacey Act Declaration
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking seeking public comments on regulatory options that could address certain issues that have arisen with the implementation of the Lacey Act declaration requirement. These options include establishing certain exceptions to the declaration requirement and modifying the Declaration Form PPQ 505 to simplify the collection of information.
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Comments are due by August 29, 2011.
APHIS Seeks Information on Exceptions, Importer Compliance, Etc.
APHIS issued its ANPR in order to seek information and develop regulatory options on the following issues:
- Whether an exception from the declaration requirement for products containing minimal amounts of plant material could be developed that would be less burdensome while still carrying out the intent of the Lacey Act amendments;
- How importers may comply with the declaration requirement when importing composite plant products whose genus, species, and country of harvest of some or all of the plant material may be extremely difficult or prohibitively expensive to determine;
- How to accommodate products made of re-used plant materials, or plant materials harvested or manufactured prior to the 2008 Lacey Act amendments, and for which identifying country of harvest, and possibly species, would be difficult if not impossible; and
- Whether groups of species commonly used in commercial production, could be given a separate name that could be entered on the declaration form as a type of shorthand identification of genus and species, such as the currently recognized “SPF” acronym for “spruce, pine, and fir.”
See future issue of ITT for details.
(The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 amended the Lacey Act to provide, among other things, that importers submit a declaration at the time of importation for certain plants and plant products. The declaration requirements of the Lacey Act became effective on December 15, 2008, and enforcement of those requirements is being phased in.)