Posted by
ROWELG on Sunday, August 17, 2008 11:41:32
Per H.R. 2419 of May 2008, effective November 2008 it shall be
unlawful for any person to import any plant unless the person files upon importation a declaration that contains
(A) the scientific name of any plant (including the genus and species of the plant) contained in the importation; (B) a description of— ‘‘(i) the value of the importation; and ‘‘(ii) the quantity, including the unit of measure, of the plant; and ‘‘(C) the name of the country from which the plant was taken. The terms ‘plant’ and ‘plants’ mean any wild member of the plant kingdom, including roots, seeds, parts, or products thereof, and including trees from either natural or planted forest stands. This will stick it to the $300 billion cosmetic industry, pet food industry, tourist industry, and almost everything. Imagine importing a frying pan with a wood handle, and having to specify (declare) scientific name of wood, value, quantity, and country the tree was cut down in, before bringing it into the country.
In this section of the "Farm Bill" there is some references to Global Climate Change Prevention Act, Emergency Forest Restoration Program, and Prevention of Illegal Logging Practices. That tells you where this burden being mandated upon free enterprise is coming from. DHL sent out a headsup email to its customers this week about new mandated costs and time delays on international import trade. Actually the last farm bill is just a nice label on a bad law, again, to fool the public. It is called H.R. 2419 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. Bush vetoed the H.R. 2419 of May 2008 but it was overrided. Specific mandating words in this 628 page law spells it out is on page 371 of section 8204. (see pdf web text).
I am sure DHL who transports cargo into USA from around the world knows what they are talking about. I am sure it is putting them into a clearing house delay, adding to transportation costs.
Congressional Budget Office estimates that enacting the bill would increase direct FEDERAL spending for those programs by projections for those programs, enacting H.R. 2419 would bring total spending for those USDA programs to $286 billion over the 2008-2012 period and $614 billion over the 2008-2017 period. That doesn't include the added business costs upon $300-$600 billion private industries mandated by requiring plant import declarations. Larry R.
Read pages 370-371:
For skeptics, read it yourself:
(2) P
LANT DECLARATIONS.—Section 3 of the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 (16 U.S.C. 3372) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
PLANT DECLARATIONS.—
‘‘(1) IMPORT DECLARATION.—Effective 180 days from the date of enactment of this subsection, and except as provided (3), it shall be unlawful for any person to import any plant unless the person files upon importation a declaration that contains—
‘‘(A) the scientific name of any plant (including the genus and species of the plant) contained in the importation;
‘‘(B) a description of— ‘‘(i) the value of the importation; and ‘‘(ii) the quantity, including the unit of measure, of the plant; and ‘‘(C) the name of the country from which the plant was taken.
‘‘(2) DECLARATION RELATING TO PLANT PRODUCTS.—Until the date on which the Secretary promulgates a regulation under paragraph (6), a declaration relating to a plant product shall—
‘‘(A) in the case in which the species of plant used to produce the plant product that is the subject of the importation varies, and the species used to produce the plant product is unknown, contain the name of each species of plant that may have been used to produce the plant product;
‘‘(B) in the case in which the species of plant used to produce the plant product that is the subject of the importation is commonly taken from more than one country, and the country from which the plant was taken and used to produce the plant product is unknown, contain the name of each country from which the plant may have been taken; and
‘‘(C) in the case in which a paper or paperboard plant product includes recycled plant product, contain the average percent recycled content without regard for the species or country of origin of the recycled plant product, in addition to the information for the non-recycled plant content otherwise required by this subsection.