WARNING: Illegal shipments and Customs!

Buyers and sellers need to be aware of customs laws. Here is a response I got from APHIS in regards to a question I had asked several weeks ago concerning a similar matter:

"The relevant law is now the Plant Protection Act, which superseded most of the Federal Noxious Weed Act in 2000. The list of federal noxious weeds was out of date as well. The official list is on the APHIS website at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/weeds/index.shtml

...with regard to regulating the sell/trade of restricted plants between hobbyists. No one is required by the Plant Protection Act, our authority, to post the federal noxious weed list. I can't speak for the States, but I doubt that any State Law has such provisions either. It is the responsibility of the buyer/seller/trader to know the regulations affecting the goods they sell/trade... ...the import and interstate movement restrictions for parasitic plants, noxious weeds, and other pests regulated by APHIS-Plant Protection and Quarantine.

Regards,

Polly P. Lehtonen, Senior Import Specialist
USDA, APHIS, PPQ
Plant Health Programs
Permits, Registrations, Imports & Manuals (PRIM)
Commodity Import Analysis & Operation (CIAO)
4700 River Road Unit 133, Room 4C-01.27
Riverdale, MD 20737-1236
Tel. (301) 734-4394
Fax. (301) 734-4300 "

This deals more with restricted materials, but it's the same general idea for getting goods shipped over that have the potential to have parasites attached. The phytosanitary certificate is required, and the only way around it is to mark the package as something else, which looks suspicious to customs agents, and can result in a seizure of you goods.

Dave, totally agree, in a legal sense - which is why I said my naivete is no excuse: Ignorance of the law is not a pass.

That said, I bought in good faith, from a company that willfully practices illegal smuggling. They ship cheaply - but I (wrongly) didn't think anything other than that it's a huge company, with the economies of scale to do so - much like volume discounts on bulk shipments. I've also never bought plants internationally before, and didn't know anything about the laws involved, and wouldn't - a very, very newbie mistake to make, and I own it fully; completely my mistake, but a mistake as it would be to, say, park on a city street in a given city that doesn't have posted parking signs, but rather "known" city ordinances describing the relevant laws. (Lousy example, I know, but I hope it serves).

Now, against this, we have a company that willfully says zero about the required certificates on their listings, and dupe many, many people, apparently - and whereas before, I don't think much was done about it, it's my impression, based on my example alone, that U.S. Customs/Border/Homeland Security is taking this all very seriously, and domestic customers are the ones who are going to be hurt by this, not an unreachable website outside our jurisdiction.

So, they willfully both burn suppliers who do abide by the laws (who have to pay the appropriate fees - they are in essence "dumping" the legal market), and they willfully avoid making any mention on their sites of the required certificates, or the extra cost involved. As I said, intrinsic to an informed decision is, or should be, a transparent appraisal of any and all risks and rewards of a given purchase.

Top that with this person's bad-faith reportage of me as an "unpaid buyer," after the fact of their refunding me, and the picture couldn't be any clearer, at least to me.

I should mention that the threshold goes way, way down, before the eyes of jurisprudence, if someone willfully engages in illegal smuggling. That bar of willful culpability is being lowered, if my instincts, based on what experience I have had working within the law, are right. Buyer, truly, beware. I'm now "marked," but I hope others are forewarned.

davemonkey said:

Buyers and sellers need to be aware of customs laws. Here is a response I got from APHIS in regards to a question I had asked several weeks ago concerning a similar matter:

"The relevant law is now the Plant Protection Act, which superseded most of the Federal Noxious Weed Act in 2000. The list of federal noxious weeds was out of date as well. The official list is on the APHIS website at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/weeds/index.shtml

...with regard to regulating the sell/trade of restricted plants between hobbyists. No one is required by the Plant Protection Act, our authority, to post the federal noxious weed list. I can't speak for the States, but I doubt that any State Law has such provisions either. It is the responsibility of the buyer/seller/trader to know the regulations affecting the goods they sell/trade... ...the import and interstate movement restrictions for parasitic plants, noxious weeds, and other pests regulated by APHIS-Plant Protection and Quarantine.

Regards,

Polly P. Lehtonen, Senior Import Specialist
USDA, APHIS, PPQ
Plant Health Programs
Permits, Registrations, Imports & Manuals (PRIM)
Commodity Import Analysis & Operation (CIAO)
4700 River Road Unit 133, Room 4C-01.27
Riverdale, MD 20737-1236
Tel. (301) 734-4394
Fax. (301) 734-4300 "

This deals more with restricted materials, but it's the same general idea for getting goods shipped over that have the potential to have parasites attached. The phytosanitary certificate is required, and the only way around it is to mark the package as something else, which looks suspicious to customs agents, and can result in a seizure of you goods.

Click to expand...

The issue, from all I can tell, isn't banned plants, but shipping them without proper certificates, and willfully attempting to illegally bypass inspections. I understand the pressure not to go this way - the certificates are expensive. But to not have the issue on their site, and to admit they are aware it is illegal - "most get through, they just randomly check" - means they are willfully smuggling, and buyers buying from them are subject to anything from being marked, as I now am, or worse - as the discussion of penalties and prison time above allude to.

In my case, I bought two plants - C. beckettii, and some flame moss, ignorant of all of this. Both are not banned plants, they are innocuous.

It should be interesting, it seems to me, that aquatic magic has been here several times, and hasn't offered an explanation of any kind. I'm aware there isn't one to be offered, because it's obvious - but I would respectfully recommend to anyone else considering purchasing from them to keep everything discussed here in mind.

houseofcards said:

Paul sorry for your troubles.

Are the plants in question actually on a banned list? It sounds like the plant protection Act can simply ban all plants from import.

Click to expand...

There are some overseas companies that do offer Phytosanitary Certificates; if I remember correctly, AquaticMagic had offered them when I had purchased from them several years ago, so I wonder what happened between then and now?

The ulimate solution is for either hobbyists or suppliers to pay attention to those plants in demand here in The States and (assuming they are legal to keep by the hobbyist) bypass customs all together. A few more burns on customers here and on other sites will inevitably lead to this logical conclusion.

It is too bad that some overseas companies have tried to overcome this issue illegally for short-term gains as opposed to doing the right thing and find a long-lasting, permenant, and legal solution for their customers. Opportunity was wasted, and all it will take is one nursery to feel the pulse of the hobbyists and start supplying some of these hard to find species for the same cost, and everyone will switch and buy from that supplier.

I stopped buying from overseas suppliers because everything was coming in dead after two or three weeks of waiting. I have found much better and rarer species from fellow hobbyists here, from friends locally, or (at times) on Aquabid from a trader within the US. I do wish to point out that when my packages of plants from overseas finally arrived, there was no phytosanitary certificate and the envelopes were stamped "toy" as well. It was a total waste, and out of disgust I never bought from an overseas supplier again. I did have the good fortune of not having anything confiscated by US Customs, and I am very sorry to see these events unfolding. Unfortunately, this has been one of many similar stories that I have seen many, many times here on APC regarding overseas based suppliers.

I hope that "buyer beware" will not be tolerated here regarding some of these companies that too often attempt to bypass federal law and get the buyer into trouble as the supplier is allowed off the hook. If this happened a few times per year, I could understand to a point. But these posts are showing up with great frequency and regularity and I believe that it is time to start questioning the point/purpose of allowing these suppliers to continue to peddle their wares here if we in The States are going to be subjected to their illegal means of shipment to bypass Customs while the naive hobbyist faces potential prosecution.

Have a nice day.