Justification Memo

Justification for Minor Changes to the PPQ 505, Plant and Plant Product Declaration Form

The APHIS Lacey Act Program is adding the importer’s email address to the Plant and Plant Product Declaration Form (PPQ Form 505) as a required field, and also including the email address as a required field for the electronic option of filing declarations through U.S. Customs and Border Protections’ Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).    The Lacey Act Program already collects the importer’s email address when filing declarations via APHIS’ LAWGS data system because it utilizes APHIS’ E-Authentication process for which an email address is required.   The following reasons support the inclusion of the importer’s email address:

1. It will provide another option for communicating with the importer other than U.S. Mail  correspondence and phone contact, that will enable the Lacey Act Program to communicate more quickly than via US mail and still be able to track our communications (as opposed to phone conversations).

2. It enables the Lacey Act Program to be consistent in their information collection via all three options for filing a Lacey Act declaration (LAWGS, ACE and the paper Form 505).

3. It will enable the Lacey Act Program to quickly and effectively issue and track noncompliance letters sent directly to importers using an automated email process designed in the LAWGS data system.    Lack of the importer’s email address will decrease the timely issuance of these letters and will create a financial and resource burden on the Lacey Act Program by requiring manual mailing of the letters.  

In addition, the form is now designed in the standard USDA format.

USDA/APHIS/PPQ