NAMM submits CITES agenda recommendation

After review and input by NAMM Members on the Import Export Task Force, NAMM has submitted the attached document as a formal recommendation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for agenda consideration at the sixteenth regular meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP16) tentatively scheduled to be held in March 2013 in Thailand. NAMM urges consideration of “instrument passport and CITES appendix clarifications” for instruments with CITES listed materials to improve cross-border transport of instruments and wood materials.

The Parties to the Convention meet periodically to review what species in international trade should be regulated and other aspects of the implementation of CITES. NAMM recommends to the CoP that either (a) a personal effects exemption for musical instruments be adopted by all parties, or (b) a process be developed by which all parties will allow free transport of musical instruments containing CITES-listed species if the owner/traveler obtains necessary documentation from the management authority of his or her country of residence, which documentation would allow the identified instrument to leave the country. Additionally, NAMM has requested clarification on definitions of sawn wood and veneer listed on CITES appendix II and III as regulated timber species.