A coalition of 20 manufacturing associations north of the border is trying to get the U.S. to exempt Canada from the Lacey Act's import declaration outlining species used in a shipped product.
The Canadian Manufacturing Coalition's members cover a wide swath of industries, from forest products, to paper packaging, to die casting, to automotive parts, among others. The coalition is hoping to get the exemption included in the next Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Action Plan. In 2011, the RCC was formed by the governments of the U.S. and Canada to find ways to reduce and prevent regulatory barriers to cross-border trade.
In a letter to the RCC's secretariat, the coalition characterized the import declaration as onerous. "Each [declaration] represents an unnecessary, incremental direct cost to Canadian exporters," the letter reads. "The direct costs pale in comparison to the in-house, corporate cost of completing, reconciling, matching and storing the required declaration information to the shipment destined to the United States."
The coalition also said that of the 6,000 declarations sent to the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), 90 percent are filed by Canadian manufacturers. "The 2008 action was intended to protect fragile rain forests and species-hardly a concern when it comes to Canadian forestry management," the letter reads. "Yet our members are disproportionately saddled with the high cost and logistical nightmare the import declaration presents."
