CBP Update Confirms Metric Units for Electronic and Paper Lacey Declaration
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a revised CSMS message on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s requirement that plant materials be reported on the Lacey Act declaration using standardized units of measure (such as kg, m, m2, and m3), effective May 1, 2010.
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(However, APHIS has granted a grace period for its enforcement of this requirement until approximately July 1, 2010.)
New Message Confirms Use of Metric for Electronic Decs
CBP’s new message is similar to the one issued on May 18, 2010, but the second and third sentences have been replaced with new text that states this metric requirement will not impact the ability of an entity to file Lacey declarations electronically via ABI. The CATAIR already allows for Lacey Act reporting in standardized metric units. 1
APHIS Wants Trade to Use Metric as Soon as Possible
While the 60-day grace period was granted to give the trade time to adjust to the new requirement, APHIS has stated it would like the trade to change to metric quantities and units as soon as possible.
Quantity Should Reflect Actual Plant Content in Product
APHIS has also stated that the metric quantity values should reflect the actual plant content in the product and not necessarily the product as a whole.
After July 1, APHIS to Ask Non-Metric Decs to be Resubmitted
Once this grace period ends, APHIS has stated that it will be contacting filers if their Lacey declarations are in non-metric quantities and units of measure, and will be asking that the declaration be resubmitted using metric units of measure and quantities. As the programming for electronic declarations does not support resubmissions or corrections, resubmissions for declarations originally submitted electronically must be on paper.
1The May 18, 2010 2nd and 3rd sentences stated “This change only affects importers using the Paper 505 form, and does not impact any entity filing electronically via ABI. There are no pending programming changes for Lacey Act reporting in ABI.”
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/24/10 news, 10052424, for similar notice based on information from government sources. See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/10/10 news, 10051013, for BP summary of APHIS notice on its metric requirement.)
(CBP CSMS #10-000129, dated 05/27/10)