Sending Plants From Thailand to US Buyers: The Permit, the Certificate and Who Carries the Risk

Who the importer is, and what that liability means

Customs regulation defines the term before any plant rule is reached, and the definition turns on who owes the money rather than on who ordered the goods.

"Importer. \"Importer\" means the person primarily liable for the payment of any duties on the merchandise, or an authorized agent acting on his behalf. The importer may be: (1) The consignee, or (2) The importer of record"

Source: 19 CFR 101.1, eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

The liability is personal, and it does not transfer to whoever handles the paperwork.

"(1) Personal debt of importer. The liability for duties, both regular and additional, attaching on importation, constitutes a personal debt due from the importer to the United States which can be discharged only by payment in full of all duties legally accruing, unless relieved by law or regulation. Payment to a broker covering duties does not relieve the importer of liability if the duties are not paid by the broker."

Source: 19 CFR 141.1(b), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

Dragon Courier runs an Importer of Record service, which places that position with the courier rather than with the person receiving the plants. The declaration itself stays with the shipper under the terms of the plant service, and a shipment seized by customs carries no compensation, so the accuracy of what is written on the invoice is where the real exposure sits.

The written permit

Plants for planting are not admitted on a declaration alone. The regulation makes a written permit the condition of entry and delegates the exceptions to a separate administrative manual rather than listing them in the regulation itself.

"(a)(1) Plants for planting may be imported or offered for importation into the United States only after issuance of a written permit by the Plant Protection and Quarantine Programs, except as provided in the Plants for Planting Manual. Exceptions from the requirement for a written permit will be added, changed, or removed in accordance with § 319.37-20."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-5(a)(1), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

Anything falling outside the permit requirement is not free of control either, since it still needs an oral authorisation issued by an inspector at the port of entry. The application for the permit itself names the importer and the shipment in advance, which is why the permit cannot be arranged after a box has left Thailand.

"(1) Name, address, and telephone number of the importer; (2) The taxon or taxa and the approximate quantity of plants for planting intended to be imported; (3) Country(ies) or locality(ies) where grown; (4) Intended United States port of entry; (5) Means of transportation, e.g., mail, airmail, express, air express, freight, airfreight, or baggage; and (6) Expected date of arrival."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-5(b), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

Dragon Courier holds an import permit for each market it serves, so no import permit is required from the customer, and the team sends a copy of the plants that permit covers on request.

The phytosanitary certificate and its fifteen day window

Every shipment of plants for planting travels with a certificate, and the regulation states what it has to identify.

"(a) Phytosanitary certificates. Any plants for planting offered for importation into the United States must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, except as described in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section. The phytosanitary certificate must identify the genus of the plants for planting it accompanies."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-6(a), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

The definition carries the detail that decides scheduling, because the certificate has a shelf life.

"Phytosanitary certificate. A document, including electronic versions, that is related to a restricted article and is issued not more than 15 days prior to shipment of the restricted article from the country in which it was grown and that: ... (2) Is issued by an official of a foreign national plant protection organization in one of the five official languages of the FAO; (3) Is addressed to the national plant protection organization of the United States (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service)"

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-2, eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

Fifteen days is the operative number for a nursery. A certificate issued for an order that then waits three weeks for a flight is no longer valid at export. In Thailand the issuing organisation is the Department of Agriculture, and Dragon Courier arranges the certificate, free of charge on shipments to the USA.

Bare root, and the growing media exception that does not cover Thailand

Soil is the rule most often broken by a first shipment, and the regulation states it without qualification.

"(a) Any plants for planting at the time of importation or offer for importation into the United States shall be free of sand, soil, earth, and other growing media, except as provided in paragraph (b), (c), or (d) of this section."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-10(a), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

There is a route by which plants may travel established in a growing medium, and it is granted country by country rather than species by species.

"(c) Certain types of plants for planting growing solely in certain growing media listed in the Plants for Planting Manual may be imported established in such growing media. The Administrator has determined that the importation of the specified types of plants for planting in these growing media does not pose a risk of introducing quarantine pests into the United States. ... APHIS will publish in the Federal Register a notice that announces our proposed determination and requests comment on the change."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-10(c), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

The most recent decision of that kind covers Phalaenopsis orchids from two European countries and shows how the authorisation is worded.

"We are advising the public of our decision to authorize the importation of Phalaenopsis spp. orchid plants from Germany and the Netherlands in approved growing media into the United States. As a condition of entry, Phalaenopsis spp. orchid plants in approved growing media from Germany and the Netherlands will have to meet all relevant requirements included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plants for Planting Manual and detailed in a bilateral workplan."

Source: Notice of Decision To Authorize Importation of Phalaenopsis Spp. Orchid Plants for Planting in Approved Growing Media From Germany and the Netherlands Into the United States, Federal Register Vol. 90 No. 138 p. 34413, 22 July 2025, Docket APHIS-2024-0001.

No equivalent decision has been published for Thailand. Plants leaving Thailand for the United States therefore go bare root, packed in new sphagnum moss, and an orchid from a Thai nursery does not travel in its pot because a European one may.

CITES, and the permit a business needs

Orchids are the case where a second permit appears, and it attaches to the business rather than to the shipment.

"(a) On or after March 26, 1985 no person shall engage in business as an importer, exporter, or reexporter of any terrestrial plants listed in 50 CFR 17.12 or 23.23 unless such person has obtained a protected plant permit for engaging in such business from Plant Protection and Quarantine."

Source: 7 CFR 355.11(a), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

The regulation defines who is engaged in business, and the test is commercial purpose rather than volume.

"Engage in business as an importer, exporter, or reexporter of terrestrial plants. To import, export, or reexport terrestrial plants for the purpose of selling, bartering, collecting, or otherwise exchanging or acquiring the plants as a livelihood or enterprise engaged in for gain or profit. This term shall not include persons engaged in business merely as carriers or customhouse brokers."

Source: 7 CFR 355.2, eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

Epiphytes are inside the scope rather than outside it, which settles the question for orchids and bromeliads.

"Terrestrial plants. Any plants (including epiphytic plants), except marine plants."

Source: 7 CFR 355.2, eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

A business dealing only in plants that are not listed under those two provisions is granted permission to trade without a protected plant permit at all, under 7 CFR 355.10. The port is the other half of the CITES question, and it is a routing decision taken when the shipment is booked.

"Plants are allowed to be imported, exported or reexported only at ports authorized for such purposes by the U.S. Department of the Interior, or, under certain circumstances as determined by the U.S. Department of the Interior, at nondesignated ports, pursuant to section 9(f) of the Act (16 U.S.C. 1538(f))."

Source: 7 CFR 355.20, footnote 4, eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

Dragon Courier prepares and sends CITES documents to major markets including the USA at no charge.

What happens when a shipment is refused

Plant shipments do not clear at a general cargo terminal. The regulation sends them to a specific class of facility and gives the inspector there the decision.

"(a) Approved ports of entry. Any plants for planting required to be imported under a written permit in accordance with § 319.37-5(a), if not precleared, must be imported or offered for importation only at a USDA plant inspection station, unless the Plants for Planting Manual indicates otherwise."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-8(a), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

A pest that cannot be treated ends the shipment rather than delaying it.

"Any plants for planting found upon inspection to contain or be contaminated with quarantine pests that cannot be eliminated by treatment will be denied entry at the first United States port of arrival and must be destroyed or shipped to a point outside the United States."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-8(c), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

The bill for that outcome is addressed to the importer, and the regulation says so in those words.

"The importer of any plants for planting denied entry for noncompliance with this subpart must, at the importer's expense and within the time specified in an emergency action notification (PPQ Form 523), destroy, ship to a point outside the United States, treat in accordance with part 305 of this chapter, or apply other safeguards to the plants for planting, as prescribed by an inspector, to prevent the introduction into the United States of quarantine pests."

Source: 7 CFR 319.37-8(d), eCFR, version of 1 September 2026.

A refused plant shipment has nowhere to go back to. Plant shipments cannot be returned to Thailand because of import restrictions at this end, so the two outcomes the regulation allows, destruction or export to a third country, are the only two on the table. That is why the paperwork is settled before departure rather than argued at the port.

Dragon Courier works directly with USDA and with the plant seller in Thailand to get a held shipment released urgently. Customs clearance is generally completed on the same day the shipment is presented, and Dragon Courier clears customs itself rather than handing the file to a broker.

What a plant shipment to the USA costs

Live plants are not priced off the ordinary parcel list. They run on a separate rate card, quoted duty paid, with the fuel surcharge already inside the number. These are the USA figures.

Dragon Plant Export Rate, inclusive of fuel surcharge, valid 10 June 2026. Above 30 kg the price is charged per kilo, at 565 THB per kg from 30.1 to 70 kg and falling to 545 THB per kg on the largest consignments. Transit to the USA is 2 to 5 working days.

The service is Delivery Duty Paid. The customer pays no import duty and no tax, and the parcel arrives with nothing to settle.

A box is charged on its actual weight or on its volumetric weight, whichever is greater, and the volumetric figure is length times width times height in centimetres divided by 5,000. Plants are bulky for what they weigh, so the volumetric figure usually sets the price.

Two surcharges apply on this service and both are worth designing the box around. An oversize surcharge of 2,500 THB applies where the longest side exceeds 121 cm, or where length plus girth, counted as twice the width plus twice the height, exceeds 266 cm. An overweight surcharge of 4,500 THB applies to any box between 30 and 65 kg, and no single box may exceed 65 kg. Splitting a tall order into two boxes is usually cheaper than paying the oversize charge on one.

The declared value on a USA plant shipment is capped at 1,000 US dollars.

Compensation is limited rather than absent. Loss is covered at 100 THB per kilo, to a maximum of 500 THB per air waybill, and claims for cosmetic damage, plant condition or appearance are not accepted at all. The protection that counts on this route is therefore operational rather than financial: temperature control door to door, a van with air conditioning built specifically for plants, and the fastest available flight rather than the cheapest routing.

Phytosanitary and CITES certificates are provided free of charge on the USA route. Fumigation can be arranged where a shipment needs it, with the cost approved by the shipper before the work is done.

About Dragon Courier

Dragon Courier is a Bangkok courier shipping worldwide from Thailand and the number one exporter of live plants in the country. The plant markets it serves include the USA, Canada, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong, and total volume is more than 20,000 shipments a month.

Customs clearance is the core of the service rather than an add-on. For the USA, Dragon Courier runs its own service to the destination and clears customs itself, after which a US carrier covers the final leg to the door. Duty and tax sit inside the quoted fee, so the buyer receiving the plants pays nothing on arrival.

Contacts and drop-off

A quote for a plant line to the USA needs the contents of the box and the destination, and the team can return it in a message. The office number is +66 2656 9019, LINE and WhatsApp are on +66 6-5937-0812, and the address is info@dragoncourier.com.

Drop-off runs until 17:00, Monday to Saturday, at the Bangkok office on Sukhumvit Soi 4 or the Chiang Mai office on Viangbua Road, and a pickup can be arranged for a date and time that suits. Country by country requirements for the other plant markets are set out in the guide on importing plants from Thailand.