APHIS to Clarify Lacey Act Requirements for FTZ Entries

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is drafting a "formal clarification" to spell out exemptions to Lacey Act declaration requirements for plant products entered from Foreign Trade Zones, an APHIS spokeswoman said in an email. There's been confusion over several years as to whether an exemption to the requirements applies to type 06 entries. With the move toward the Automated Commercial Environment, the agency plans to bring type 06 entries "into the fold of the Lacey Act declaration requirement," APHIS's Parul Patel, senior agriculturalist, Imports, Regulations, and Manuals, said at a National Association of Foreign Trade Zones conference on Feb. 9.

The agency "is currently crafting a formal clarification to effectively communicate the intent of the legislation and its implementation requirements specific to Foreign Trade Zone activities," said the spokeswoman. "Once available, all parties will be notified of the new information." Numerous attendees at the NAFTZ conference said they were under the impression that type 06 entries are exempt from the Lacey Act declaration requirements. Exemptions to the Lacey Act requirements only apply to certain specified packaging materials and not to all type 06 entries, APHIS's Patel told the conference. In light of the differing opinion from APHIS on the subject, one attendee inquired whether industry-wide "prior disclosure" may be needed due to the misunderstanding. Patel said APHIS is working closely with the NAFTZ to address the issue.

The confusion stems from mentions of FTZs within a 2009 Federal Register notice (here) and a subsequent set of Frequently Asked Questions posted on the APHIS website (here). Within those documents and as recently as Feb. 10 (here), the agency said "it is "not requiring a declaration for informal entries, including most personal shipments, mail, transportation and exportation entries, in­transit movements, carnet importations (i.e., merchandise or equipment that will be re­exported within a year), and foreign trade zone and warehouse entries." APHIS "is aware that the current guidance regarding import declarations requirements for plant products formally entered from, versus admitted into, U.S. Foreign Trade Zones under the Lacey Act may be misinterpreted," said the spokeswoman.

The agency plans to work closely with the FTZ world as CBP and other agencies progress toward ACE, said Patel. APHIS is committed to learn some of the "intricacies" and "nuances" to accommodate the 06 entry types, she said. While CBP recently set a May 28 deadline for mandatory use of ACE on some entries (see 1602080042), APHIS is hoping for "far more time than that," Patel said. "We have a lot of issues that we're trying to educate the agency on," she said. The NAFTZ recently called on APHIS Administrator Kevin Shea to clarify the policy toward type 06 entries and how such entries will be treated following the transition to ACE (here).