Company pulp shipments to comply with Lacey Act amendments
Millar Western is assuring its U.S. pulp customers that it will be fully prepared to meet the documentation requirements set out in recent amendments to the U.S. Lacey Act, which come into effect October 1, 2009. “Our U.S. lumber shipments have been subject to the Lacey Act amendments since May 2009,” explained Millar Western’s Director of Pulp Sales and Marketing, Steve Lord. “For some months now, we have been working with our customs broker and internal information systems group on developing a parallel system for pulp. It will be in place within the month, and, given our experience with lumber, we don’t expect any implementation issues.”
Passed in May 2008, the Lacey Act amendments require importers to declare country of origin and species of all plants contained in their products. The reporting process will involve submitting monthly blanket declarations with shipment estimates to U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which will then be reconciled to actual shipments.
Millar Western Forest Products Ltd. produces approximately 300,000 air-dried-metric tonnes (admt) of hardwood, softwood and blended grades of BCTMP per year, for shipment to customers around the world. BCTMP is used in a variety of paper products, from fine writing and printing papers, to tissue and paperboard.