Five letters to make your knees tremble when traveling with your guitar: CITES

michelew
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Mon Feb 13, 2017 3:04 pm

spinland wrote:
michelew wrote:
Indigenous people here suffered a lot of pain as a consequence of government policies, their lives continue to be affected by it
At the risk of going further down the "downer path" my father is part Native American and can translate a lot of Muskogean language material; he's sometimes called on for help when construction unearths something that needs to be identified as to whether the site needs special handling. My mistrust of government-at-large is ingrained in my upbringing. :dry:

Okay, enough of that. Just trying to help smooth things with some context. It's all good. :side:
I'm sorry you and you family and community have had such bad treatment. I only know a little about American history and how indigenous people were treated and the situation now. I know enough to know there are similarities with here. .... i get why you made the comment now. I'll leave it here too.


michelew
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Mon Feb 13, 2017 4:07 pm

Chris,

Sorry for pirating your thread. :blush:


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neverfoundthetime
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Mon Feb 13, 2017 5:15 pm

No worries Shel! Hope this helps people to be up-to-date on the issue.


michelew
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Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:07 pm

And this article tells you what you actually have to do if you travel with a rosewood instrument.

http://www.ericschaeferguitars.com/34-r ... musicians/


Extract from article below:

Here is what you need to know:
Appendix I contains Brazilian Rosewood, elephant ivory and tortoiseshell.

Appendix II contains all other Rosewoods (starting Jan. 2, 2017).

First and foremost, none of this matters if your instrument, your guitar parts, your raw wood or whatever it is that you are selling or carrying does not cross any international borders. It does not matter if it’s Appendix I or Appendix II, CITES only affects border crossings.

For The Traveling Musician

For the musician who travels internationally with their instrument, you may be covered by the Personal Effects Exemption.

“Personally owned or possessed specimens will be exempted as personal effects if both the countries of import and export implement the personal and household effects exemption for the species and the specimen at the time of import, export or re-export was worn, carried or included in personal baggage.”

So this means that you have to check with both the country that you are entering AND the country that you are leaving to be sure that they allow the Personal Effects Exemption. And this only applies to Appendix II. So no Brazilian Rosewood, elephant ivory or tortoiseshell.

There is another exemption for non-commercial shipments up to 22 lbs, though there is debate over what “22 lbs” means.

Fish and Wildlife defines 22 lbs as 22 lbs of Rosewood. This means that a travelling musician can ship an instrument ahead of themselves without a permit if the shipment includes less than 22 lbs of rosewood. This is good news. I can’t imagine any instrument with 22 lbs of rosewood unless the case is made out of the stuff!

Apparently, in Europe, however, some sources define 22 lbs as the whole shipment. Under that definition, you can imagine how a single instrument with it’s case can be outside of the exemption… so it’s a gray area.

It may be easier and wiser to just get the Musical Instrument Certificate, AKA passport.

I’ll explain what that is…

On the Fish and Wildlife website there are two permit applications:

-One application for a one-time import/export.

-And one for “frequent non-commercial, cross-border movement of musical instruments for purposes including, but not limited to personal use, performance, display, and competition with the issuance of just one document.”

The latter is called the Musical Instrument Certificate, and it seems to me that they both take the same amount of time and cost the same amount of money through filing fees and whatnot. So it seems to make sense to just get the Musical Instrument Certificate and not bother with the one-time import/export permit. That way, you save yourself the hassle of having to potentially get another permit in the future. The Musical Instrument Certificate lasts for 3 years.

Fish and Wildlife states that you should allow atleast 45 – 60 days for the permit or certificate, but I have heard from other sources that it may take up to 90 days so apply very early. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a lot longer than 90 days, in some instances. I’d imagine that there are going to be A LOT of permit applications now with these new regulations including all rosewoods. Fish and Wildlife may be understaffed to handle all the new requests. We will see. Either way, you should apply very early.


dtaylor
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Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:39 pm

I guess there's no point trying to travel with a Brazilian rosewood guitar, better to put on on my lap and enjoy playing it, oh well, no great loss.


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neverfoundthetime
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Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:27 pm

Had you in mind when I posted this, Dean. Not worth the hassle, eh.


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