The government of Australia joined the US and the European Union recently by passing legislation prohibiting the import and trade of illegally sourced wood products. NEPCON posted a very nice summary of the new regulation, which includes a very helpful table summarizing the three laws.
A number of companies – including some MixedWood clients – are currently working on Due Diligence Systems (DDS) in order to be in compliance with these laws. The big question that no one can answer is how serious their risk is. Legislation and regulation aren’t worth much until they are enforced. So far Lacey Act enforcement (with one exception) is essentially nonexistent. Will this be true for the EU as well? How about Australia? We’ll just have to wait and see.