The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin requiring Lacey Act import declarations for a new set of plant materials and products beginning as early as spring 2024, it said in an emailed bulletin March 27. The agency is reviewing the tariff schedule to “determine the complete list of materials and products that will be included in Phase VII” of Lacey Act enforcement, and will publish a “complete list” in the fall of “materials and products” that will be newly subject to the import declaration requirement, it said. APHIS “will require declarations for those product codes 6 months” after it publishes the list, it said.
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.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is increasing amounts of civil penalties for violations of the laws and regulations it administers, including the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act, it said in a final rule. The annual increase for inflation raises penalties about 7.7% over penalty amounts set in 2022, the FWS said.
Richard Kazmaier, former associate professor of biology at West Texas A&M University, was sentenced to six months in prison, three years of post-release supervision and a $5,000 fine for "importing protected wildlife" without declaring it or getting the proper permits, DOJ announced Jan. 11. Kazmaier admitted to importing around 358 wildlife items -- skulls, skeletons and taxidermy mounts -- in violation of the Lacey Act.
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Herdade Lokua and Jospin Mujangi, citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo, were sentenced, respectively, to 20 months and 14 months in prison for their roles in a scheme to smuggle wildlife products from the DRC to Seattle, DOJ announced. Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy and Lacey Act charges.
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The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service hopes to begin implementation of its seventh and penultimate phase of Lacey Act declaration requirements toward the end of 2023, the agency’s Erin Otto said Sept. 19, speaking at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference in Washington. Otto said APHIS hopes to complete phase seven implementation in the summer of 2024, at which point the agency will pivot to the final phase eight.
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A bipartisan amendment that would ban mink farming for fur production in the U.S. passed the House of Representatives 262-168, as the House was working its way through hundreds of amendments to the America Competes Act. The amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., amends the Lacey Act. It was changed from the original language, which spoke specifically of ending import and export of Neovison vison, the species known as American minks. The new version bans the sale, possession, acquisition, purchase or transport of the species, if it was raised in captivity for fur production. If this section of the bill survives the conference committee process with the Senate, it would take effect Dec. 31.
Amendments that would have directed the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to broaden access to Section 301 exclusions and would have liberalized the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program will not get a vote when the America Competes Act gets a vote on the House floor this week, but the Ocean Shipping Reform Act will get a vote. That bill passed the House last year, but has not gotten a vote in the Senate.