Retailers Seek Modifications to Lacey Act Wood Products Import Rules
Congress should revise rules on the importation of wood products and plant material because retailers fear they could lead to unfair government seizure of merchandise ranging from furniture to musical instruments, the National Retail Federation said in a statement. “Retailers recognize the need for environmental conservation but the current law leaves them guessing on which products are legal and which aren’t,” said NRF President Matthew Shay.
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A subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee scheduled a hearing May 9 on legislation that would reform portions of the Lacey Act. Congress expanded the law in 2008 to ban trade in products containing illegally harvested wood or plant material. Those changes also require importers to document the genus, species and country of harvest of any wood or plant material contained in an imported product.
The hearing is on HR-3210, the Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act sponsored by Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and HR-4171, the Freedom from Over-Criminalization and Unjust Seizures Act sponsored by Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga. (See ITT's Online Archives [Ref.12031343] for details of the proposed changes).
NRF has argued that the scope of foreign laws and regulations that could result in a violation is too vague, and it can be virtually impossible to trace all the wood and plant content in many manufactured products, making effective compliance and enforcement of the law extremely challenging. “It is impossible from looking at or testing wood to determine whether it was illegally harvested,” Laurie Everill, regional customs compliance and operations manager for NRF member IKEA-North America, said in testimony prepared for the hearing. “This exposes companies potentially to millions of dollars in losses through no fault of their own.” She also said the requirement to file declaration forms on the wood content of merchandise is “costly and administratively burdensome for both importers and the U.S. government while achieving little to prevent illegal logging.”