6-Month Clock for Phase VII Lacey Act Enforcement Hoped to Start in '2-ish Months,' Official Says
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will “hopefully” publish its notice launching Phase VII of Lacey Act Enforcement “in the next two-ish months,” said Erin Otto, of the agency’s Lacey Act program, on April 16. That will trigger a six-month countdown until full enforcement of Phase VII, which covers all non-composite plant products that Lacey Act requirements haven't previously covered.
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The notice is now going through “final clearance,” said Otto, speaking at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference. It will cover “approximately 26 different chapters, and about 250 different HTS codes,” she said. APHIS will allow comments for 60 days after the notice’s publication.
Phase VIII, which covers composites, will be more complicated, partly because APHIS has been “finding out our current definition of composite doesn't cover all types of composites,” Otto said. In particular, the agency needs to consider liquids like latex, wood-plastic composites and composites made from other composites.
APHIS “might be adding special use designations” or “other disclaim codes” to address composites in Phase VIII, Otto said. The agency is “going to be welcoming all sorts of information” from industry, manufacturers or “anyone that's involved with composite materials” because “the more information we have, the better we can draw that line between which items are going to require a Lacey Act declaration because they're closer to the plant,” and which won’t.