Amendment to the U.S. Lacey Act: Implications for Vietnamese Forest Products Exporters
By R. Juge Gregg And Amelia Porges View PublicationThe U.S. Department of Justice has already warned that it intends to use the Act to prosecute those who import timber taken or transported in violation of the laws of the country in which the timber was originally harvested. Penalties under the Act include civil administrative penalties, forfeiture of the trafficked goods, criminal fines or imprisonment. A Lacey Act violation may also trigger charges of smuggling or money laundering. The Lacey Act will now apply to the full range of imported wood products and species, far beyond those few species listed as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES).