APHIS Says Filed Paper Lacey Act Declarations Must be Retained 5 Yrs, Close to Issuing Report to Congress
Officials at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service state that after a paper Lacey Act Declaration (PPQ 505) for imported plants and plant products is submitted to APHIS, it must be retained by the importer of record or filer for a five year period. There is no similar requirement of importers of record/entry filers for the electronic Lacey Act Declaration submitted to APHIS via U.S. Customs and Border Protection's ABI system, as CBP itself will fulfill the five-year record retention requirement.
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DOJ Says Standard Retention Period Is Followed for Paper Declaration
According to APHIS officials, this timeline was confirmed by the Justice Department as the standard retention period for paper documents submitted to the government is five years, unless otherwise specified.
(See ITT's Online Archives 11092020 for summary of APHIS posting a "filled out" sample of the new Lacey Declaration PPQ 505 form (August 2011). See ITT's Online Archives 11081812 for summary of APHIS' revisions to PPQ 505 form (August 2011) and addition of a new supplemental form for additional articles and parts. See ITT’s Online Archives 11082204 for summary of APHIS stating it wants the trade to switch to the revised Lacey Declaration form soon. See ITT's Online Archives 11090727 for summary of APHIS pointers on the Lacey Act Declaration.)
APHIS Now Very Close to Completing its Report to Congress on Declaration
Officials also state that the interagency work group that is working with APHIS to write the report to Congress on the Lacey Act Declaration is very close to completing its work, and that "one could hope" that it will be submitted to Congress by the end of 2011.
APHIS has previously stated that its top priority right now is to complete this report to Congress.
The 2008 Lacey Act Amendments require APHIS to include certain information in its report to Congress, including (partial list):
- An evaluation of the effectiveness, in terms of enforcement, of each type of information the import declaration requires, including the (1) scientific name of any plant contained in the importation, (2) value of the importation, (3) quantity and unit of measure of the plant, and (4) name of the country from which the plant was taken.
- An evaluation of the enforcement effectiveness of listing each plant species that may have been used (if the species used varies and is unknown), and/or each country from which the plant used may have been taken (if the plant is commonly taken from more than one country and the country of harvest is unknown).
- An evaluation of the enforcement effectiveness of the average percent content requirement, without regard to the species or country, for paper or paperboard products containing recycled content.
- An assessment of the potential to harmonize the above requirements with other applicable import regulations in existence as of the date of the report.
- Any recommendations for legislation that would assist in the identification of plants that are imported into the U.S. in violation of the declaration requirement.
- An analysis of the impact of the 2008 Act’s plant import, export, etc. prohibitions and the declaration requirement on the cost of legal plant imports and the extent and methodology of illegal logging practices and trafficking.
(See ITT’s Online Archives 11022808 for summary of APHIS’ request for comments on its review of the Lacey Act declaration, which will be detailed in its report to Congress. See ITT’s Online Archives 11063014 for summary of APHIS’s ANPR to create a ‘de minimis’ declaration exception for small quantities, how to deal with products that contain composite plant materials, the use of species groupings, etc.)