21 October 2008

Lawmakers Offer Guidance on Scope, Timing of Lacey Act Amendments

This article is excerpted from the 21 October 2008 edition of “World\Trade Interactive”.

Senior Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for narrowing the scope and phasing in the enforcement of the new import declaration requirement under the recent amendments to the Lacey Act. If accepted by the federal agencies implementing this requirement, these recommendations could help ease the concerns that have been expressed by importers, retailers and others.

Enforcement. Under the 2008 Farm Bill, importers of plants or plant products, including wood and wood products, must submit upon entry a declaration that includes the genus and species of the plant(s) used, the value and quantity of the importation and the country of origin of the imported product. The law had set a Dec. 15 deadline for compliance with this requirement, but earlier this month the Department of Agriculture proposed to delay enforcement until April 1, 2009, or as soon thereafter as an electronic system to collect the declaration information can be implemented. As of that date the USDA would begin requiring the declaration for goods classified under HTSUS chapters 6 and 44, and about every three months thereafter enforcement would be expanded to additional chapters.

In an Oct. 10 letter to the USDA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other relevant agencies, Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden, Tom Harkin and Max Baucus and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Nick Rahall and Charles Rangel agreed that an electronic information collection system is essential and that enforcement should be delayed until electronic filing is available. They also expressed support for a phased-in approach to enforcement but laid out a different schedule than the one proposed by the USDA. … Specifically, the requirement should be phased in based on Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers and each phase should be six months long. This schedule could include products such as logs and timber, sawn wood, lumber and solid wood flooring in the first phase; bent wood furniture, cribs, wooden picture frames, plywood, engineered flooring and wood pulp in the second phase; and certain paper products, wooden blinds, billiard cues and musical instruments in subsequent phases.

In addition, the letter said, some products should be exempted from the import declaration requirement during the first two years the law is in force. Examples include beverages (HTS chapters 21 and 22); cosmetics and personal care products (HTS chapters 33 and 34); footwear, textiles and apparel (HTS chapters 50 through 64); and rubber or cork products.

Finally, the lawmakers said, implementing agencies should state their intent to tie enforcement to the phase-in schedule. “Importers need the assurance that they will not be subject to civil enforcement or prosecution for complying with the phased-in electronic declaration process prior to the date that U.S. Customs and Border Protection implements the declaration requirement for a particular pro