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.
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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an expanded draft ABI CATAIR Chapter for the Participating Government Agency Message Set (aka the standard data set), which is a single, harmonized set of information that will be collected electronically from the trade by CBP on behalf of PGAs. It will allow CBP and PGAs to make decisions about what cargo can come into the U.S. without the myriad paper forms currently required. CBP has also posted a draft appendix providing the codes and qualifiers for the PGA Message Set.
On July 1, 2010, APHIS began enforcing its requirement for plant material quantities to be reported using standardized metric units (such as kg, m, m2, m3), for both paper and electronic Lacey Act Amendment declarations for imported plants and plant products. According to sources, APHIS is not yet rejecting any entries when declarations are not in metric units, but may do so in the future. APHIS officials are also discussing which additional products should be listed as subject to enforcement for the declaration requirement itself (which is currently at Phase IV in terms of listed products).
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 2-6, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
The Justice Department has announced that seafood wholesalers Karen Blyth and David Phelps were sentenced to 33 months and 24 months in prison, respectively, for violating the Lacey Act, etc. A third defendant charged in the case, John Popa had previously pleaded guilty to similar offenses, and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26, 2011.
The Animal and Health Plant Inspection Service has updated its guidance on Special Use Codes for the Lacey Act Declaration for imported plants and plant products. According to APHIS sources, this new guidance consolidates three previous guidance documents on this topic, adds new information, and emphasizes the need for importers to exercise “due care” before using Special Use Codes (they should not be used as a catch-all).
During recent trade events1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials provided an update on the status of Participating Government Agency (PGA) message set (aka the standard data set) -- a single, harmonized set of information that will be collected electronically from the trade by CBP on behalf of PGAs. The PGA message set will allow CBP and PGAs to make decisions about what cargo can come into the U.S. without the myriad paper forms currently required.
During the April 13-14, 2011 U.S. Customs and Border Protection annual Trade Symposium, CBP and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officials reported that they were reluctant to add certain HTS codes to the Lacey Act declaration requirements and that there has not been any enforcement specific to the Lacey Act declaration requirements yet, although there are ongoing investigations.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued its final Policy for the Assessment of Civil Administrative Penalties and Permit Sanctions, including for certain fish trade-related violations of the Lacey Act and tuna rules, etc. The final policy became effective on March 16, 2011.
CBP has posted the following presentations and speaker biographies for the 2011 Annual Trade Symposium that will be held April 13-14. (Note that BP will be attending and reporting on the symposium).