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Globalization dictates how businesses communicate and conduct
business. As companies learn the nuances of interaction between
countries and continents, there is a growing need for
standardization of some practices.
Sending
products and components across borders is becoming commonplace.
With cross-border transportation, however, comes a variety of
restrictions related to customs regulations. More unification is
needed for these restrictions around the world, and various
government and regulatory agencies have joined forces to define
some industry standards for the handling of one type of common
cross-border product: wood packaging.
The ISPM
15 regulation is estimated to go into effect in mid-2005 for
shipments from Mexico to the United States and is designed to
protect against exchange of insects between countries. Insects
are often found in wood packaging materials such as wood
pallets, crating blocks, drums, cases, pallet collars and
skids—all subject to this regulation.
These
items will soon have to be specially heat-treated and certified
to pass border inspection. Certification is evidenced by an
official stamp from the direct manufacturer of the pallet.
Exempt
from this regulation are wood packaging materials made entirely
of processed manufactured wood such as paper products, plywood,
particle board, OSB and veneer. These materials are excluded
because they were made using glue, heat and pressure, or a
combination of these factors, and therefore deemed safe.
Over the
last decade, companies in various countries have been encouraged
to fumigate or heat-treat wood packaging materials, but because
of the additional logistics and costs involved, the practice was
not adopted by many companies. An element of the regulation
includes treatment at point-of-use—another variable that many
pallet makers are finding difficult to handle from a logistics
standpoint.
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