If a shipment uses wood pallets, crates, or dunnage, ISPM 15 applies — and getting it wrong is one of the more common reasons an otherwise-compliant container gets held, re-exported, or destroyed at the shipper’s expense, not because of the product inside but because of what it’s sitting on.
What the Standard Requires
ISPM 15 is set by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and adopted by more than 180 countries, including the US, EU, and China. It applies specifically to solid wood packaging — pallets, crates, dunnage. Plastic, metal, corrugated packaging, and manufactured wood products like plywood or OSB fall outside its scope.
Compliant wood must be treated by an approved method — heat treatment (HT) or methyl bromide fumigation (MB) are the traditional options, and each treated batch must carry a visible mark: the IPPC logo, a two-letter country code, the certified facility’s code, and the treatment code.
A 2026 Detail Worth Knowing
US enforcement of one specific marking detail had a documented gap in 2025. From March through December 31, 2025, APHIS and CBP formally suspended enforcement action against shipments that were otherwise compliant but missing the hyphen separating the two-letter country code from the producer code in the IPPC mark — a step taken after the agency found an unusually high volume of shipments arriving without it. That suspension ended with no grace period: as of January 1, 2026, a missing hyphen is grounds for the same enforcement action as any other non-compliant mark (cargo holds, and where operationally possible, separation of the wood packaging from the cargo for re-export).
On the China side, GACC is known for frequent physical inspection of wood packaging material regardless of marking status — a stricter posture than the largely mark-based acceptance common at US and EU ports of entry.
Practical Notes for Exporters
- A mark stays valid for reused pallets as long as it’s intact and legible — but if the pallet has been repaired or rebuilt, it must be re-treated and re-marked before its next export use.
- Enforcement style varies by destination: US and EU customs generally accept a valid mark at face value; China customs is known for more frequent physical inspection of wood packaging regardless of marking.
- Responsibility for compliance sits with the shipper, not the carrier — so verifying the pallet supplier’s certification is worth doing before goods are packed, not after a shipment gets flagged.