CITES Musical Instrument Passport

peewee

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I'm going on a trip that involves multiple crossings of the US/Canada border and debating what uke to bring.

One concern is compliance with CITES, an international treaty which subjects any instrument thought to contain listed endangered materials to confiscation if it doesn't have the proper paperwork. Listed materials include brazilian rosewood, some ebonies, elephant ivory, some types of abalone along with tons of other types of wood... older (pre 1975?) instruments are exempt, but it's all at the whim of the customs agent.
I have no way of proving what any of my ukes are made of or when they were made.

For those of you who travel frequently, the US Fish and Wildlife service (and presumably other international entities responsible for CITES enforcement)are establishing a passport program for instruments.
It only lasts three years, and it's non-transferable, and the cost isn't listed on the not-yet-updated form...but if you are a touring musician this might save you some hassle.

Aslo, the USFW website is using a picture of a ukulele!
http://www.fws.gov/international/permits/by-activity/musical-instruments.html
 
Thanks for posting this little guy! We're always interested in this sort of thing.

It took awhile to fully digest the hour long webinar and the two application forms. My take on all this is that while it doesn't do much good for the majority at this point, it's at least a step in the right direction.

The people this will actually be effective for at this point are the ones who are owners of vintage instruments: Pre-Convention & Pre-Act, as they say. Even for them, however, the fees for this "passport" - $100 one time and $200 for three years, are still the commercial fees. Maybe the new form will lower those costs to something more reasonable for the occasional traveler / private owner. In the meantime, all the touring professional Concert Classical guitarists who own vintage Rosewood and ebony are jumping all over this!

If you don't own a vintage instrument, then to get this passport, you'll need the kind of permits no one is supplying private owners with at this point. I'm guessing this passport process may be a way to start forcing manufacturers and builders to supply their customers with wood harvest permits. It would be a bit cumbersome, as you need to have a permit for every restricted species used in the instrument, right down to binding and trim.

Then there is the Elephant in the room. This is all about CITES, and there's only one short mention of the Lacey Act. This passport will apparently ignore that altogether. USDA has said that they will not be enforcing Lacey on individuals "at this time", but you have to wonder how long they can get away with that. It's much more difficult to comply with than CITES, because it requires that woods or shell restricted in a particular country - not internationally or in CITES for instance - also need local harvest permits from that country that otherwise wouldn't apply. At present there's no database for that, so you need to know the permit process in the country your woods were cut in. Huh?

Commercial folks struggle with that one, but the law explicitly states there is no "de minimus" exemption, meaning those rules apply to individual instruments and their owners as well. How long Congress decides to let the USDA continue to ignore the way the law was written is anyone's guess, but attempts to exempt individuals from Lacey requirements have gotten nowhere in the past, and that doesn't seem likely to change.

CITES enforcement, however, as is obvious from the creation of this passport program, is not being ignored. I haven't touched on how bad this really can be. We have a sizable page on our new website that deals with it, and even that is just a brief summation. All the individual shipping and travel with undocumented instruments is a risky business. It's not a huge risk at this point, but to think you are completely safe would be a mistake. The movement of undocumented wood products is against the law, however lax the enforcement may be.

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There is a way around the mess. We simply use woods that are outside of the permit process. No Mahogany, no Spanish Cedar, no Ebony, no shell, and of course no Brazilian Rosewood (those are the most common species used in instruments - the full list is much longer). We supply our own "Passport" - a list of the scientific names for every species in the instrument. While this is not a legal document, it makes it pretty much impossible that you would ever be faced with confiscation, let alone fines or jail. If the validity of that Declaration was ever to be questioned, the burden falls on us - not the owner.

If you are a frequent International Traveler then you should buy from us!!! Well, of course that's not absolutely necessary, as good an idea as it may be for other reasons. What you could also do is invest in a custom instrument that simply uses no restricted woods. Under Lacey, you don't really know what the restrictions are overseas, so ask your builder to use native species. There are lots of wonderful tonewoods to choose from.

Then ask him to put together some sort of form, listing every species by scientific name, together with the date of manufacture. The latter is important if at some future time one of the woods in your instrument falls into the permit process - you're "grandfathered".
 
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