CITES Exemption begins Today

[Casey Burns]

Just a reminder that today and after CITES permits are no longer required for Blackwood or Rosewood (not including Brazilian) musical instruments.

Casey

[Steve Bliven]

Who's gonna be the first one of us to test it?

Best wishes.

Steve

[Casey Burns]

I already sent off two packages of flutes to England earlier today. One with one flute, another with three. I am not expecting any issues during Customs processing per any CITES requirements. My clients wanted me to wait until the requirements were lifted so as to avoid the cost of permits.

Casey

[Terry McGee]

So, what do we conclude about all that, Casey? Did CITES get it wrong? Or is this just a temporary reprieve? Or is it all a message to reduce dependency on this particular species? Or have they tightened up on the harvesting side (which seems to me to be the right place rather than once the tree is down!)? Or what?

[Casey Burns]

I think that the bottom line was that they found that imposing this requirement on instrument makers, including some of the large ones, only added to their paperwork handling without doing anything at all to stem the illegal harvesting and trafficking of the affected species.

I doubt if it will be a temporary reprieve. Also, the requirements are still in place for the raw materials - thus if I wanted to purchase blackwood from overseas the exporter would still have to deal with the required permits and I might require a permit for importation. I am lucky that I have an excellent supplier - and one of the best in the US - just 3 hours south of me.

Casey