USDA increases treatment requirements for northern Mexico lumber

USDA increases treatment requirements for northern Mexico lumber    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has increased its treatment requirements for untreated lumber and wood products from the northern Mexican states.
   The agency said the purpose is to prevent the spread of wood pests. APHIS used to process untreated northern Mexican wood products under a general permit. However, a 1998 Forest Service pest risk assessment showed a “significant pest risk” exists in the movement of raw wood products into the United States from adjacent Mexican states.
   APHIS will now require northern Mexican wood product suppliers to provide proof of either methyl bromide treatments or kiln drying.
   The agency estimates that the value of softwood lumber products imports from the northern Mexican states to be about $54 million a year.
   The average price of softwood lumber imported from Mexico in 1999 and 2000 was about $343 per square meter. Methyl bromide fumigations costs about $6 to $10 per square meter and kiln drying costs about $10 to $13 per square meter. Both treatments are equivalent to 2 to 4 percent of the import price of this commodity.
   “This expenditure is an acceptable cost when one considers possible adverse impacts for the nation’s agriculture and forests if unmanufactured wood articles are allowed to continue to enter from Mexican states adjacent to the United States/Mexico border under general permit,” APHIS said.