Reminder: Full Enforcement of WPM Treatment and Marking Requirements Begins July 5, 2006
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) sources have confirmed that effective July 5, 2006, APHIS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin Phase III of their wood packaging material (WPM) implementation plan, which calls for full enforcement on articles of regulated WPM entering the U.S.
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Under Phase III enforcement, all shipments containing violative WPM will be ordered exported if the Port Director determines that it is not feasible to separate merchandise from the violative WPM or if such separation is not requested.
(The U.S. and other countries have committed to enforce the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) 15 entitled, "Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade." ISPM 15 calls for affected WPM to be either heat treated or fumigated with methyl bromide and marked in a certain way certifying treatment (with certain exemptions for most WPM from Canada and a limited exception for WPM from Mexican border states).
Affected WPM includes WPM other than manufactured wood material, loose wood packing materials, and wood pieces less than 6 mm thick in any dimension, that are used for or for use with cargo to prevent damage, including, but not limited to, dunnage, crating, pallets, packing blocks, drums, cases, and skids. See ITT's Online Archives or 07/08/05 news, 05070810, for BP reminder on these WPM treatment/marking requirements.)
Highlights of Phase III enforcement include (partial list):
Discontinuation of informed compliance. CBP states that beginning July 5, 2006 it will no longer conduct informed compliance at the shipment level. In Phase III, immediate export of all shipments containing violative WPM will be ordered if the Port Director determines that it is not feasible to separate merchandise from the violative WPM. (APHIS sources add that the Port Director could also determine that it is not feasible to separate merchandise due to staffing limitations.)
Phase III extends enforcement to all regulated WPM, including dunnage. In addition, CBP notes that while Phase II of APHIS' enforcement plan (February 1 - July 4, 2006) put in place the WPM requirements for pallets and crates, Phase III extends the WPM enforcement to all regulated WPM, including dunnage.
(According to CBP, dunnage presents unique challenges. Often, pieces of dunnage are cut to fit a load and may, during that process, be separated from the IPPC marking. Other times, during the course of transit, dunnage is broken, crushed, abraded, or otherwise damaged; in these cases, too, pieces of dunnage will likely be separated from their compliance mark.
For purposes of enforcement of this regulation as it relates to dunnage, CBP states that it intends to exercise its discretionary authority so that if it believes that cut or damaged pieces of dunnage are part of a larger piece of properly marked wood, CBP will determine that the unmarked dunnage has been treated and marked, and consider the unmarked dunnage to be non-violative.)
Marked WPM with certain live wood boring pests to be exported. CBP states that in accordance with the USDA's interpretation of Phase III, on July 5, 2006, CBP will consider any marked or unmarked WPM determined to be infested with any live wood boring pest of the families Cerambycidae, Buprestidae, Siricidae, Cossidae, Curculionidae, Scolytidae, Platypodidae, or Sesiidae, to be in violation of the WPM regulation and must be required to be exported.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 03/31/06 news, 06033105 for BP summary of CBP's March 23, 2006 version (most recent, 9th update) of its FAQ on these WPM requirements, which covers, among other things, (1) articles of wood not considered to be WPM, (2) the Canadian exception, including shipments that originate from a country other than Canada (3) separation of violative WPM from merchandise in NVOCC consolidations, etc.
See ITT's Online Archives or 09/15/05 news, 05091505, for BP summary of CBP notice on Phases I- III.
See ITT's Online Archives or 01/10/06 news, 06011005 for BP summary of Canada's and Mexico's implementation of ISPM 15.)
APHIS WPM Information Web page:http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/wpm/
CBP FAQ on WPM Enforcement (updated 03/23/06) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/commercial_enforcement/wpm/wpm_faq.ctt/wpm_faq.doc