SUMMARY
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 amended the Lacey Act to provide, in part, that importers submit a declaration at the time of importation for certain plants and plant products. Enforcement of the declaration requirement began on April 1, 2009, and products requiring a declaration are being phased-in. The purpose of this notice is to inform the public of another phase of the Federal Government's enforcement schedule.
Background
The Lacey Act (16 U.S.C. 3371 et seq.), first enacted in 1900 and significantly amended in 1981, is the United States' oldest wildlife protection statute. The Act combats trafficking in illegally taken wildlife, fish, or plants. The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, effective May 22, 2008, amended the Lacey Act by expanding its protection to a broader range of plants and plant products (section 8204, Prevention of Illegal Logging Practices). The Lacey Act now makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any plant, with some limited exceptions, taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law of the United States or an Indian tribe, or in violation of any State or foreign law that protects plants or that regulates certain specified plant-related activities. The Lacey Act also now makes it unlawful to make or submit any false record, account, or label for, or any false identification of, any plant.
In addition, section 3 of the Lacey Act, as amended, makes it unlawful, beginning December 15, 2008, to import certain plants, including plant products, without an import declaration. The declaration must contain the scientific name of the plant, value of the importation, quantity of the plant, and name of the country from which the plant was harvested. For paper and paperboard products containing recycled content, the declaration also must include the average percent of recycled content without regard for species or country of harvest. The plant import declaration requirement does not apply to plants used exclusively as packaging material to support, protect, or carry another item, unless the packaging material itself is the item being imported. Currently, enforcement of the declaration requirement is being phased in, as described in four notices we published in the Federal Register ,[1] the first on February 3, 2009 (74 FR 5911-5913, Docket No. APHIS-2008-0119), the second on September 2, 2009 (74 FR 45415-45418, Docket No. APHIS-2008-0119), the third on February 6, 2015 (80 FR 6681-6683, Docket No. APHIS-2008-0119), and the fourth on July 2, 2021 (86 FR 35259-35261, Docket No. APHIS-2008-0119).
In our February 2009 notice, we committed to providing affected individuals and industry with at least 6 months' notice for any products that would be added to the phase-in schedule. The phased-in enforcement schedule began April 1, 2009. The most recent phase (VI) began on October 1, 2021. The enforcement schedule is available on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) website at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/import-information/lacey-act. We continue to consider the applicability of the declaration requirement to products not included in the current phase-in schedule and we invite public comment on how the declaration requirement should be enforced as to these products.
Phase VII of the enforcement schedule, which would begin on December 1, 2024, is described below. We invite public comment on the products covered under this phase of the plan, as well as on whether any additional Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) chapters should be included in the current phase-in schedule. Should there be additions to phase VII, we intend to provide at least 6 months' notice to persons and industries affected by those changes to facilitate compliance with the new requirements. Changes will be announced in the Federal Register . For the full description of the HTS chapters, please refer to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule at usitc.gov.
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