The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is considering amending the declaration requirement that was added to the Lacey Act in December 2008 and is seeking public input, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
Only two of the four proposed changes should affect the wood flooring industry; however, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is soliciting comments on the declaration requirements as a whole, too.
APHIS is considering changing how composite plant products (like HDF-backed wood flooring) must be declared under the Lacey Act's declaration requirements. Currently, the declaration requirements do not address compliance when identifying all the components by genus and species is too difficult or prohibitively expensive. APHIS is deliberating whether composite materials should be declared as an average percentage of the composite plant content, measured by weight or volume.
APHIS is also deliberating whether to change the actual declaration form, Declaration Form PPQ 505. The form could be changed to substitute "harvest location (by country)" for the current "country of harvest," which APHIS says may be too similar to the U.S. Customs term "country of origin."
"We're trying to make the declaration requirement as industry-friendly as possible," said APHIS Staff Officer George Balady.
Comments must reach APHIS before Aug. 30 and can be submitted electronically (look at the top of the page and click "Submit a Comment") or mailed to: Docket No. APHIS-2010-0129, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.
For more information, Balady can be reached at (301) 734-5783.
