The Consumer Product Safety Commission is now “actively” investigating laminate flooring products from Lumber Liquidators, according to a statement from CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye (here). The commission will test samples of the company’s flooring products for formaldehyde content, and is “coordinating closely” with other federal agencies in the investigation, said Kaye. Lumber Liquidators is also under investigation from the Justice Department for Lacey Act violations (see 1502250067), and defending against several class action lawsuits related to formaldehyde content in its laminate flooring (see 13120432 and 14012223). The company was the subject of an investigative report that aired March 1 on "60 Minutes" (here).
Lacey Act
The Lacey Act and subsequent amendments make it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, or acquire any plant, fish or wildlife obtained in violation of U.S., tribal or foreign law, as well as any injurious wildlife. The law is administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and CBP. APHIS has been implementing Lacey Act declaration requirements since 2009. Lacey Act declarations may be filed by the importer of record or its licensed customs broker, and include information on imported item's species name, value, quantity, and country where it was harvested.
CBP posted filing instructions within the Automated Commercial Environment for more participating government agencies (see1503090013) :
The Department of Justice is considering seeking criminal charges against Lumber Liquidators for Lacey Act violations, said Lumber Liquidators in its annual “10-K” report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 25 (here). ICE and the Fish and Wildlife Service executed a search warrant at the company’s corporate offices in late 2013 seeking information on the company’s imported wood flooring (see 13092716).
The transition of cargo release to the Automated Commercial Environment in November is going to be marked by a transition period that will require some heavy lifting from the trade community, said CBP officials at a National Association Foreign-Trade Zones (NAFTZ) seminar on Feb. 10. While CBP hopes to get everyone to the point where they can exchange electronic messages, it remains to be decided how automation will work at the operational level for entities like terminal operators, truck drivers, and container freight stations that currently stamp paper, said James Swanson, CBP director-cargo security and controls.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 2-6 in case they were missed.
Twenty more tariff lines in chapters 44, 82, 94, and 96 are set to become subject to enforcement of Lacey Act import declaration requirements, as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service begins the next phase of enforcement in August. The addition of the new tariff lines marks the fifth phase of Lacey Act declaration enforcement, according to an APHIS Federal Register notice (here). APHIS is giving importers six months until Aug. 6 before it begins requiring declarations on the new products. The agency will accept comments until April 7 on the products covered by Phase V, as well as any other tariff lines that should be included. The current list of products set for enforcement beginning on Aug. 6 is as follows:
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal revives a previously-floated but unapproved plan to consolidate some federal trade agencies into one agency, and the two largest food safety agencies into one shop as well, the White House said in its budget release on Feb. 2 (here). The budget proposal asks Congress to give the White House more power to unilaterally make consolidations and cuts. Obama has asked for that consolidation authority several times over recent years (see 12021417).
The Obama administration is committed to opening the Chinese private marketplace for U.S. high-tech products, said the Commerce Department in a Dec. 29 briefing on the outcomes of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. The briefing touted intellectual property protection gains and plans for more improvement, among a long list of other achievements. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman joined Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to praise progress at the JCCT after the event wrapped up on Dec. 18 (see 1412190020).
CBP has plans to start at least six more Participating Government Agency pilot programs in 2015 to test interoperability with the Automated Commercial Environment, according to an agency schedule for the pilots (here). Previously announced pilots set to begin in 2015 are an Environmental Protection Agency test for Notices of Arrival for pesticides and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declaration, it said. The other pilot programs set for 2015 are:
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- A wide-ranging update to the trade-related regulations of agencies outside CBP may not be possible by the 2016 deadline for completion of the International Trade Data System (ITDS), said CBP Office of International Trade Commissioner Brenda Smith. "People rarely want to change regulations," she said Oct. 17 at the Western Cargo Conference. "My guess is that, there is a lot more work than we are going to be able to get to by 2016," she said. Still, the Border Interagency Executive Council is already discussing ways to make improvements, such as aligning differing definitions between CBP and the Food and Drug Administration for unique identifiers and port facilities, she said.