New International Wood Packaging Rules

[MSU_Keith]

New regulations for overseas wood packaging materials require treatment and markings by a certified treatment plant.  Just wondering if everyone is up to date on this or will this be a marketing/service opportunity (get rich baking pallets)?

From AMM:

Steel importers are steering straight into the eye of a six-legged storm
By Nancy E. Kelly
WASHINGTON
Governments across the globe have banded together to make sure their seaports are bulwarks against a worldwide scourge that has devastated parts of unsuspecting nations.
As a result, steel importers have four months to guarantee their shipments fully comply with new international rules. If they fail to comply, foreign steel won't be allowed to offload at U.S. ports.
The peril against which global customs officials are guarding their shores isn't extremists or hidden weapons, but damaging ecological terrorists: bugs.
Pests like the two-lined chestnut borer have left a plague-like wake of environmental and agricultural damage that have killed tens of thousands of tanoak, coast live oaks and California black oaks throughout central coastal California since 1995. Likewise, the Asian long-horned beetle is a serious pest in China, where it kills hardwood trees, and in the United States, where it prefers maple, chestnut, elm, birch, willow, poplar and green ash.
According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, projections of physical damages that can be caused by the Asian long-horned beetle, the Eurasian spruce bark beetle and the Sirex wood wasp are put at $48 million, $208 million and $607 million, respectively.
To exterminate the problem, new international shipping rules were ratified in 2002 seeking to prevent imports of the pests that have been found to roost in wood packaging material commonly used as a buffer in overseas shipments to prevent damage to steel coils and other products.
Importers who bring offshore steel into the United States have until Sept. 16 to make sure the wood packaging material they use fully complies with new standards.
Under the new regulations, wood packaging material is defined as "wood packing materials other than manufactured wood materials, loose wood packing materials and wood pieces less than 0.24 inch thick in any dimension that are used, or that are for use, with cargo to prevent damage, including, but not limited to, dunnage, crating, pallets, packing blocks, drums, cases and skids." Steel importers typically use dunnage, wood packaging to secure or support a commodity that doesn't remain associated with the commodity.
While the final rules were published last fall--Sept. 15, 2004, through Sept. 16, 2005, is considered a one-year "implementation phase"--several steel importers at an American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) conference in Philadelphia seemed unaware of their obligations under the new regulations.
The international regulations have been ratified by 134 countries, but each has set up its own timetable to enact them, Hal Fingerman, chief of agriculture operations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told AIIS attendees. The European Union, for example, began enforcing the new regulations for all imports beginning March 1.
The new standards require wood packaging material used in international trade to be specifically treated. Approved processes include heat treatment to a minimum wood core temperature of 56 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 30 minutes or fumigation with methyl bromide.
In addition, all wood packaging material must be marked with the following information:
•  The designated International Plant Protection Convention logo.
•  The two-letter International Organization for Standardization code for the country that treated the wood packaging material.
•  A unique number assigned by the National Plant Protection Organization to the company responsible for ensuring the wood packaging material was properly treated.
•  The abbreviation HT (heat treatment) or MB (methyl bromide).
One AIIS importer asked Fingerman if having a fumigation certificate to present to customs officials as proof of treatment would qualify, given that marks potentially could be worn off in transit.
Fingerman said that a fumigation certificate couldn't be substituted for the requirements. He cautioned that if a steel shipment into the United States were found to have been packed with material not adequately marked, the steel would be returned to the country of origin. Treatment or destruction of the wood packaging material at the port wouldn't be an acceptable alternative, he said, although other countries have adopted less-stringent penalties, allowing for the treatment or disposal of non-compliant material.
A U.S. exception to the international rule extends to imports of wood packaging material originating in Canada, which is exempt from the treatment/marking requirements.
The U.S. rules note that "since determining wood origin will be very difficult" and Canada is implementing the international requirements, Canadian shipments will be allowed to enter the United States without the required marking, although wood packaging material from Canada will be inspected for pests.
AMM.com is the international news service of American Metal Market

Another Link:
http://www.fedex.com/us/promo/woodpackaging.html

[MSU_Keith]

Oops - sorry about the cut and paste - didn't realize it would be such a ramble.

[Frank_Pender]

Keith, you have given some of us some real pearls to think about.  These same issues will one day be on a interstate type of level as well, I am sure. :'(

[oldschoolmiller]

Very interesting, Thanks for the info 

[MSU_Keith]

Thanks oldschool.

Just wondering if there are any pallet makers that have installed new equipment or processes and gone for their compliance certificate?  If so, was it a big hassle? Expensive?  I imagine the methyl bromide would be cheaper than an oven big enough to bake pallets for 30 min but it looks like it will be outlawed after this year:

http://www.palletenterprise.com/pests/fumigation101.asp

Seems like the regulatory agencies can't keep up wth each other. :  Pallet baking might still be business opportunity.