USDA AMENDS CHINA EXPORT RULES TO ALLOW CANADIAN PALLETS

USDA AMENDS CHINA EXPORT RULES TO ALLOW CANADIAN PALLETS    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued an interim rule to allow U.S. exporters to use packing materials heat-treated in Canada and certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
   The interm rule aims to increase access to softwood packing materials for exports to China.
   Under coniferous wood packing regulations issued by the USDA last August to comply with Chinese trade rules, all coniferous solid-wood packing material, or SWPM, sent to China had to be heat-treated in the United States.
   “That requirement was based on our belief that it would be extremely difficult for U.S. exporters to document that a heat treatment has been properly performed if it has been performed in a foreign country,” the USDA said. “Since the final rule was published, we have received numerous requests to amend it to provide a means to certify coniferous SWPM that originated and was heat-treated in Canada, but is later used to export U.S. goods to China.”
   According to the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service statistics, about 21 percent of coniferous SWPM used in the United States in 1999 was of Canadian origin. “In that year — the last full year in which U.S. exporters could effectively use Canadian- origin coniferous SWPM in shipments to China — about 35 million pallets were imported from Canada, compared to a total U.S. inventory of about 168 million reusable pallets,” the USDA said.
   The USDA estimates that the China SWPM rules affect about 125,000 shipments a year from about 5,000 exporters. Exports to China that use this type of packing material include pharmaceuticals, auto parts, diapers, fruits and vegetables.
   The USDA will take comments from the industry regarding its interim rules for heat-treated Canadian-origin wood packing through Sept. 17. For more information, contact Frederick Thomas, export specialist with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at (301) 734-8367.