Beginning October 1, 2021, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will start enforcing Lacey Act import declaration requirements on 27 new tariff lines. This marks the sixth phase of Lacey Act declaration enforcement, which was delayed from October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the new products include essential oils; trunks, cases and suitcases; oriented strand board and wooden containers and pallets; musical instruments; and monopods, bipods, tripods, and more.
Lacey Act declarations must include the scientific name of the plant, value of the importation, quantity of the plant, and name of the country from where the plant was harvested. For paper and paperboard products containing recycled content, the declaration also must include the average percent of recycled content without regard for species or country of harvest.
APHIS is also removing subheading 3301.29.5150, which covers “other” essential oils, as it is unclear what the subheading covers, and “there could be attempts to inaccurately classify products under different codes to avoid the plant import declaration requirement.” APHIS agrees “that this code may not provide sufficient specificity and could result in both deliberate and unintentional inaccuracies.”
Please reach out to your Mohawk Global representative with any questions you have regarding these changes.