Two Taiwanese nationals were sentenced to prison for conspiracy to ship internationally protected black coral into the U.S. in violation of federal wildlife statutes, the Department of Justice announced. Ivan Chu of Taipei, Taiwan, was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison and pay a $12,500 fine. Gloria Chu also of Taipei was sentenced to serve 20 months in prison and pay a $12,500 fine. These sentences, issued pursuant to the Endangered Species Act and Lacey Act, are the longest prison sentences for illegal trade in coral to date.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service officials recently stated publicly that there will be no new enforcement phases for the Lacey Act declaration requirement for imported plants and plant products for "awhile," as APHIS is busy dealing with the workload from the already implemented phases1.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's updated April 2010 guidance on filing Lacey Act Declarations for articles containing composite, recycled, or reused materials (CRR) also contains instructions for three other special cases.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service posted updated guidance in April 2010 on filing Lacey Act Declarations for articles containing composite, recycled, or reused (CRR) materials.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued new guidance announcing that Spruce Pine Fir (abbreviated SPF) is an approved shorthand term for the Lacey Act declaration, in circumstances where the list of possible species to declare includes all species in the Common Trade Grouping “SPF”.
The World Resources Institute (WRI), Enironmental Investigation Agency (EIA-US) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have created a global initiative, the Forest Legality Alliance, to help private corporations reduce their trade in illegal wood. The alliance's formation comes after the U.S. amended the Lacey Act in 2008 to ban the trade of illegal wood products in the US.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a revised CSMS message on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s requirement that plant materials be reported on the Lacey Act declaration using standardized units of measure (such as kg, m, m2, and m3), effective May 1, 2010.
Officials from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have confirmed that APHIS will be enforcing its requirement for plant material quantities to be reported on the Lacey Act declaration using standardized metric units (such as kg, m, m2, and m3), for both paper and electronic Lacey Act Amendment declarations.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message on the recently posted Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service notice requiring plant material quantities to be reported on the Lacey Act declaration using standardized metric units (such as kg, m, m2, and m3) effective May 1, 2010.
CBP issued a CSMS message stating that APHIS recently posted a clarification stating that beginning May 1, 2010, APHIS is requiring that plant material quantities be reported on the Lacey Act declaration using standardized metric units (such as kg, m, m2, m3). This change only affects importers using the paper PPQ 505 form, and does not impact any entity filing electronically via ABI. There are no pending programming changes for Lacey Act reporting in ABI. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/13/10 news, 10051356, for BP summary of APHIS granting a grace period for the metric requirement.) (CSMS #10-000124, dated 05/18/10, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17907&page=&srch_argv=10-000124&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby)