The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last year said that it would begin enforcement for other furniture items sometime after September 2010. But a year later, it still hasn't announced when it will start the broader enforcement.The amendments created a requirement for importers to declare the species and country of origin of plant or plant products, including wood. The recent raid has some industry experts wondering if warehouses used by furniture importers might be the next target.
American Home Furnishings Alliance Vice President Bill Perdue said the Lacey Act is something furniture importers should be worried about and that the organization has been working on helping companies learn compliance, even with the current limited scope of the rule.
"We've told our guys almost ad nauseam that if you are importing lumber into the United States you've got to comply with the Lacey Act. Really it's not where you manufacture the goods, it's where the tree was harvested," Perdue said.
"You just can't say pine. You've got to be able to identify the genus and the species of the wood and the point of harvest. So it's sort of a two-edged sword. Both of those are required in the certificate that comes over with the furniture and it's by article so it gets pretty tedious."
Or maybe you can just open your plant in Mexico and not worry about it.
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