Article Number : 4835 |
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| Date | 9/11/2009 8:20:40 AM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=4835 |
| Abstract | By Jason Strong Executive vice president, BR-111 The recent amendment to the Lacey Act prohibiting imports of illegal wood products into the U.S. is sure to have a profound effect on... |
| Article | By Jason Strong Executive vice president, BR-111 The recent amendment to the Lacey Act prohibiting imports of illegal wood products into the U.S. is sure to have a profound effect on the wood flooring industry. Consider that a Lacey Act Letter of Compliancy from your suppliers may not be all you need to assure a company’s compliance. Challenge your suppliers to verify that they have done the proper due diligence to protect your company. Ask them what steps they took to assure compliancy. Ask how the raw material is sourced to make the wood floors you are buying. What kinds of tracking measures are set up to verify this process? Who actually sources the material and do they know them personally? Ask what kind of supporting documents they can offer to satisfy your concerns other than just a letter of compliancy. Ultimately, responsibility under this amendment falls on all of us who buy and resell wood flooring in the U.S., not on the foreign manufacturers that make them. Since its inception, BR-111 and its partners have been committed to preserving Brazil’s rain forest by following sustainable forest practices under the guidelines set forth by IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources). Brazil has been a leader in its efforts to clean up illegal logging, and its nice to see countries like the U.S. are stepping up by instituting some of the same policies Brazil has had in place for decades. Today, no wood product can leave Brazil without proper paperwork tying that material back to the tree it came from. The documentation is what makes the product legal, and the Lacey Act now helps enforce this by requiring importers to present similar paperwork before product is allowed into the U.S. So for us, it’s business as usual. Most of the illegal wood that leaves Brazil ends up in countries other than the U.S. first. Now, those companies will have to provide detailed documentation. It will be interesting to watch who stops selling exotics. One thing is for sure: We’ve seen a steady rise in the prices of some of our competitors lately to levels that now make sense considering all the steps involved in providing a legal product. Others have simply gotten out of the game. One would be naïve to think some illegal lumber does not come straight to the U.S. from Brazil, but the Lacey Act will now make it virtually impossible for material to make it through the U.S. borders. This will mostly affect tiny importers that have nothing to compete with other than price. Companies need reliable sources. For this reason, we will continue to only source product from people we know. We know South America; we know Brazil. |