What is the Lacey Act?
The Lacey act became law in 1900. It was the first law to protect wildlife and it has become the most powerful tool for the fight against wildlife crime. Over the years, the act has been amended several times with the goal of reducing the illegal trafficking of wildlife, fish and plants. In 2008, when the Lacey act was last amended, the 2008 Farm Bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) was passed by Congress. This amendment includes a wider variety of prohibited plants and plant products for imports, and it requires that importers submit a declaration to Customs when importing certain plants or plant products. The Lacey Act protects many affected products by requiring declarations to better control their trafficking.
The Lacey act requirements are being enforced by several government agencies, including Customs (CBP), the U.S. Agriculture Dept (USDA), and Fish and Wildlife service (FWS).
Why is this important?
First, and most importantly, it protects our world’s forests from irrecoverable loss of trees and wildlife habitat. Second, it protects lumber buyers who verify the origin of lumber when importing wood into the United States from other countries. Third, it eliminates the influx into the US of low-cost, low-quality wood flooring produced from illegally harvested forests.
The purpose of the amendment is to protect forests worldwide from deforestation and illegal wood products from being imported to the United States. What is considered illegally logged wood is wood that is sold below market price or wood cut in violation of laws and regulations.
How does the new law fight illegal logging?
To fight illegal logging and other illegal plant trade, the Act does three things:
- Prohibits trade in illegally acquired plants and plant products
Beginning on December 15, 2008 the amended Lacey act went into effect. It not only protects a wider range of plants and plant products. It also makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase certain plants and plant products that are in violation of the laws of the United States, and or any foreign law that protects the particular plant. Under the act, it is unlawful to submit a false record, account or label, or any false identification of any plant protected under the Act.
- Requires importer to submit a declaration
Lacey Act declaration
Under the amended Lacey Act all import shipments of plants or plant products must have a declaration. The declaration must contain the following information:
- The scientific name of any plant or plant product imported
- The country the plant or plant product was harvested
- The quantity of the plant or plant product
- The value of the plant or plant product
The declaration helps the agencies involved to better understand the types of woods imported and from what countries they are imported from. The declaration also helps target the shipments that need to be examined by pinpointing the individual shipments of interest.
- Establishes penalties for violating the law
Civil and criminal penalties
Any person who knowingly makes a false declaration can be issued a penalty of up to $250,000 and $500,000 for a corporation. They can also serve up to 5 years in jail. A person that unknowingly makes a false declaration can be fined $250 and possibly have their shipment seized.
Which products are covered?
There are over 8,000 harmonized tariff items for which a declaration is needed when the products are imported. The following harmonized tariff numbers (HTS) for plant or plant products need a declaration to be submitted:
Oil seeds, misc. grain, seed, fruit, plant, etc – HTS chapter 12
Gums, lacs, resins, vegetable saps, extracts, etc – HTS chapter 13
Vegetable plaiting materials and products not elsewhere specified – HTS chapter 14
Wood and articles of wood – HTS chapter 44
Cork and articles thereof – HTS chapter 45
Live trees, plants, bulbs, ornamental foliage – HTS chapter 46
Basket ware and wickerwork – HTS chapter 46
Wood pulp – HTS chapter 47
Paper and articles thereof – HTS chapter 48
Umbrellas, walking sticks, riding crops – HTS chapter 66
Tools – HTS chapter 82
Musical instruments – HTS chapter 92
Guns – HTS chapter 93
Wood Furniture – HTS chapter 94
Toys, games and sporting equipment – HTS chapter 95
Brooms, pencils, and buttons – HTS chapter 96
Works of art – HTS chapter 97
What items are excluded?
Products excluded from the Lacey Act declaration are materials used to support, protect, or carry another item such as packing materials, unless the imported product is packing materials.
Which form do you need?
The form required to make the declaration is PPQ form 505. The link to download the form can be found on our Forms Menu of this website. Customs expects the declaration to be submitted electronically at the time of entry. For any product that needs to be declared, Cap Intl will need the PPQ form 505 to be supplied by the shipper and we will then submit the data electronically through our Automated Broker Interface.
