Blog

USDA APHIS to delay Lacey Act Phase VI enforcement

Import declarations for “other” essential oils indefinitely deferred

June 28, 2021 

Dorothy Wayson, National Policy Manager for the Lacey Act at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), made two significant announcements at an AHPA webinar Wednesday regarding changes to the upcoming Phase VI of Lacey Act's import declaration enforcement implementation.

Products that fall under Lacey Act import declaration requirements have to disclose additional information, including country of harvest, at the time of import. When initially proposed in March of 2020, Phase VI included the harmonized tariff schedule (HTS) code for essential oils of “other” (3301.29.5150), a broad category containing a large number of products.

“Michael McGuffin at...AHPA and other association members and stakeholders reached out to APHIS and told us that this category was overly broad and would be burdensome for your industry,” said Wayson. “They expressed concern that this would include over a hundred essential oils, and the associations asked if we could postpone implementation for the ‘other' essential oil category. APHIS agreed to do so for this tariff code.”

As a result, essential oils of “other” have been removed from the next phase of Lacey Act import declaration implementations.

Wayson also announced that the Phase VI enforcement date, previously planned for July 1201, would now be moved to either August 1, 2021, or 30 days from its announcement in the Federal Register. On this date, commodities imported under the following HTS codes that are not otherwise excluded from the Lacey Act's import declaration requirements will begin to require import declarations:

  • 3301.29.5109 - essential oils of cedarwood

  • 3301.29.5121 - essential oils of linaloe or bois de rose

  • 3301.29.5139 - essential oils of sandalwood


AHPA will continue its work with USDA APHIS to promote the responsible commerce of herbal products.

Contributors

Contributors

Events

View Calendar >