The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Insular Affairs held an oversight hearing Thursday to once again determine if the 2008 Lacey Act Amendments are helping or hurting the U.S. economy. The Act requires importers and manufacturers to exercise "due care" to ensure that the wood and wood products they are bringing into the U.S. are legally sourced.
The hearing was scheduled after Republican representatives asserted that the bill was overreaching, burdensome to businesses and inhibiting free trade.
Among those speaking in favor of the Lacey Act was Jamey French, board member of the Hardwood Federation. French, serving as a witness for the House Minority, cited the American Hardwood Export Council's findings that exports have grown over the last few years, indicating that Lacey is helping promote legal and sustainable U.S. products abroad. He also mentioned that by removing low-cost, illegal timber from the market, businesses are better able to compete.
Huffington Post blogger Glenn Hurowitz also pointed out in his blog: "the Act has helped the United States reverse the trade deficit with its largest forest products competitor and primary trafficking point for illegally logged wood, China, from a $20.3 billion deficit in 2006 to a $600 million surplus in 2010, signaling both the strengthening of the U.S. forestry products sector and the cleaning up of China's industry."
Witnesses from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Animal and Plant Heath Inspection Service (APHIS), two entities charged with enforcing the Lacey Act, also voiced their support of the original legislation at the hearing.
The National Association of Music Manufacturers, the International Wood Products Association, the Canadian Manufacturing and Export Association and the general manager of Collins Guitar testified that the act should be amended. Steve McCreary of Collings Guitars suggested both businesses and the government could save money if, instead of filing declarations for every shipment, businesses could simply keep records of imports and exports for the regulatory agencies to access when an issue arises. "We think that would allow the government to focus on finding the 'needle' of high-risk imports, without having to look at the entire 'haystack' of all imports," McCreary told the committee.
Last July House leadership cancelled a vote on an amendment dubbed the RELIEF Act that would have weakened Lacey Act regulations.
