APHIS Nears Completion of Lacey Declaration Report for Congress

January 24, 2012

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) inter-agency report to Congress on the impact of the Lacey Act declaration is expected to be sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of January 2012, although it is still under review. OMB will then conduct a formal review process which allows for approval by the affected agencies. Consequent to approval, OMB will pass the report on to Congress, possibly as early as February 2012.

Under the 2008 Lacey Act Amendments, APHIS must provide evaluation reports to Congress analyzing the declaration’s enforcement value and effect on the cost of legal plant imports, as well as the extent and methodology of illegal logging practices and trafficking.  The report should mention:

• The enforcement effectiveness of information required by the declaration, such as scientific name, value, quantity and unit of measure, and country-of-origin of any plant contained in the importation.
• The enforcement effectiveness of listing each plant species that may have been used, and of the average percent content requirement.
• The potential to harmonize these requirements with other relevant import laws.

Another key element to the report will be recommendations for new legislation that would enhance the ability to identify imported plants that violate the declaration.

The three categories of plants that are considered exempt from the Lacey Act are common cultivars and common food crops, scientific specimens of plant genetic material used for research only, and plants that are to remain planted or be replanted. A final rule defining the two products in the first category of exemption, “common cultivar” and “common food crop,” is also near completion. The proposed definition for “common cultivar” includes a plant that has been developed for selective morphological or physiological characteristics, a species or hybrid that is grown on a commercial scale, and a plant that is not listed in any appendix to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 or any State law that pertains to the conservation of indigenous species. “Common food crop” was initially defined as a plant that has been raised, grown or cultivated for human or animal consumption, a species or hybrid that is grown on a commercial scale, and that is not listed in any appendix to CITES, under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 or any State law that pertains to the conservation of indigenous species.

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