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| APHIS/FWS CITES update http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=31777 |
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| Author: | dberkowitz [ Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | APHIS/FWS CITES update |
After suffering through the following: over 20 phone calls, three conference calls with APHIS and so forth here's where we stand: FWS: On export, is only concerned whether the goods contain CITES regulated materials, if so then you need a 3-200-32, CITES reexport permit. This would currently apply to principally Brazilian Rosewood. Otherwise, simply detail the materials on your guitar by species and country of origin on your commerical invoice. FWS: Shell. You will need a FWS 3-177 form filled out to accompany your shipment regarding your shell and where it came from, by genus and species and country of origin. APHIS. APHIS doesn't have a clue. They aren't even following their own CITES manual. FWS said they are having problems with how APHIS is handling CITES. APHIS is concerned with CITES as well, but also with what the country to which you are importing requires. In my case this turned into a cyclical conversation because APHIS wasn't following their own manual when it came to Mahogany. So if you are exporting a Brazilian Rosewood guitar you're going to need APHIS's PPQ reexport permit and you're going to have to have it inspected prior to export. If it's not regulated under CITES (either not listed at all, or not in the regulated form) then you do not require a PPQ permit, with the proviso that where you ship it will affect what APHIS wants. In the case of Honduran Mahogany, APHIS's own guidance document brings one down to the four forms that are currently regulated under CITES -- log, lumber, veneer sheet and plywood -- and says if it's not in one of these forms, then exit the manual. You should be aware that under CITES, veneer is considered material as thick as 6mm, so in that context back and side sets would be considered veneer. This is their story now. The senior manager to whom I had been working has been out on Reserve duty, so it was several other agents, CITES folks, and other USDA jurisdictions that came to the conclusion that I didn't need an export permit for mahogany. The manager will return on the 19th and I'll be updating this post thereafter. If you read the Lacey Act, ESA, and CITES, you may come to some other conclusions with regard to interstate commerce and export and so forth. Just because the Agencies are not choosing to interpret the regulations as broadly as they appear to be written doesn't mean that at one point they might decide to be more restrictive. My recommendation to folks is that going forward, get as much documentation on your materials as you possibly can -- demand import permits, CITES documents on listed materials like mahogany, honduran and cocobolo rosewoods and Aniba rosaeodora (Brazilian rosewood) and other listed materials, keep receipts and keep track of what they were used on. Here's the USDA's CITES guidance document http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/manuals/ports/downloads/cites.pdf And their Export program Documents http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/manuals/domestic/xpm.shtml If in fact you need to get a phytosanitary export permit, you will have to register with USDA's eAuthenication system, then their PCIT and a GovPay account, deposit money in the account for the permit(s), file the application and give yourself 60 days for them to issue the document and inspect. I cannot recommend strongly enough that if you are exporting a guitar, that you contact the embassy of the country to which you will be shipping, find out what agencies are responsible for Customs, CITES and related agencies, contact them and find out what they want by providing them a complete list of materials on the guitar by genus and species and country of origin. Get them to respond by email, put copies of the emails in your documents pouch as well as in your box and a set in advance to your client. If their are no issues, then make the appropriate declarations on your commercial invoices and fill out a 3-177 for your shell and ship through an appropriate shipper that can handle the brokerage and inspections on both ends -- FedEx has a good international division that can handle the brokerage. There is a $91 fee for the 3-177. David D. Berkowitz http://www.berkowitzguitars.com |
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