| USDA Suspends Importation of Wooden Craft Items from China
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The North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization have allowed global commerce to grow quickly and the craft industry has definitely benefited from increased worldwide trade. Many of us have bought holiday decorations that have labels that read “Made in China.” Craft industry buyers in the United States order a huge variety of home and holiday decorations from around the world that are made with natural plant material. These shipments of plant material could bring with them insects and diseases that could be harmful to U.S. agriculture.On April 1, 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) began suspending the importation of craft items from China that contain wooden logs, limbs, branches or twigs greater than one centimeter in diameter and that have intact bark. | | Photo Credit: Courtesy of USDA |
| One of the beetles that are the cause of the import suspension of wooden craft items from China.
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The import suspension will affect, among other things, artificial Christmas trees with wooden trunks and trellises. In the past, wooden craft items had been allowed into the United States if the wood had been sterilized in a kiln. Unfortunately this process did not kill all of the pests, so the import suspension will remain in place until Chinese exporters adopt other measures to ensure that no live insects remain in the wood.The primary insects of concern are Callidiellum villosulum and Callidiellum rufipenne, also known as the brown fir longhorn beetle and the Japanese cedar longhorn beetle. These insects are related to the Asian longhorn beetle, which is currently being eradicated in Chicago and the metropolitan New York area.In January 2005, APHIS conducted its fourth recall in six months of wooden decorative items imported from China after the Maryland Department of Agriculture found multiple Callidiellum villosulum beetles that had emerged from artificial Christmas trees manufactured in China.The beetles pose no danger to humans, but could potentially cause damage to some conifers in the United States and warmer parts of Canada if they manage to escape the imported trees and find new hosts. EC |
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