Effective March 3rd, 2013 the entry of forest products into any member Country of the European Union will need to meet the new requirements of the European Timber Regulation.  The primary intent is to stop the flow of illegally harvested timber products. 

The European Union importers (called Operators who are first to place products on the market) are required to fulfill a Due Diligence process by ensuring that what they are purchasing are in fact products from legally harvested stands of timber. 

For more information go to:

http://canadawooduk.org/european-timber-regulation-summary.php

On December 28th the US and Canada gave notice that they do intend to implement ISPM 15 at their borders for wood packaging materials.

The official date of “Full Implementation” has not yet been provided but they noted that “full implementation” will NOT occur before January 2015. 

This program will be jointly coordinated between both countries and it is their intent to provide at least 12 months of notification before it is “fully implemented” at the border entry points – land, sea, air and rail.

We are expecting the entry of eastern Canadian SPF with species components of Red spruce (Picea rubens) or Black spruce (Picea mariana) to be approved in the very near future.

Watch this Home Page for Alerts or Changes.

Mexico is planning on updating their phytosanitary regulations with changes to be effective in April 2013.  We will be posting the changes as they become available.

Effective immediately Korea’s plant health authority is regulating for bark on SPF (Pine) lumber and larch lumber – please see the Korea country listing for the new phytosanitary rules.