CITES

ChrisMartin

Question. If a guitar is made without using any restricted woods (rosewood, mahogany, Madagascan ebony) can it cross borders without any certification? By this I mean, if I were to import such a guitar knowing it has no restricted woods in it, is it just left to the folks at customs to have a look and say it is ok, do they have experts who would know the difference? Can they hold it up, or run tests if they are not sure? Are there any standard forms or papers that can declare what materials are used to ease the process?
And as a further complication to that, ebony from Madagascar is listed for example but if there was ebony from another country how does one prove its origin?
I guess the large manufacturers have worked out how to get certified but for the smaller luthier is the choice now to only use woods not listed, or no exports at all?

psychebilly

This is how it works: the manufacturer of the guitar is supposed apply for CITES certification on all their woods that come under the CITES restrictions. Those certificates say who they bought their raw wood from. The supplier to the builder is also supposed to have documents that state that the CITES' restricted wood was acquired in a 'legal' way. So, in the end, it is both the SUPPLIER and the BUILDER's responsibility to acquire the proper CITES documents. If they don't have them, you are rolling the dice. The company I work for does alot of business in Japan, so it is in our best interest to have the proper CITES documents if a customer of ours MUST have rosewood, Brazilian mahogany, etc. We have found really cool wood substitutes that are NOT on the CITES list, so that is what we use for our International Customers.

I made this post awhile ago, but I suppose it's worth re-posting:

"...if your guitar has a rosewood bridge, you need to understand the new CITES regulations.

I'm a guitar tech, and the company I work for ships the guitars we build internationally. On 2 January, 2017, new regulations from CITES went into effect, heavily regulating the import/export of rosewood (and other woods like ebony already regulated). We just spent 4 MONTHS of hurdle-jumping getting our CITES certificates lined out, and we were one of the first to get one. Now there is a bottleneck of hundreds (thousands?) of other companies trying to scramble to get theirs. Just make sure the company you are buying from has their ducks in a row as far as CITES reg's are concerned.

If not, customs agents can and will seize your guitar and have the option of not returning it should the guitar have no paperwork/CITES certificates. These regulations are new, and not 'grandfathered' in to the previous regulations concerning ebony, brazilian rosewood, etc. Now it's ALL rosewood and it's variants.

Might not be an issue if your builder already knows this and has got his new CITES cert's, but I'm just sayin'...

Alot of these "Customs Agents" wouldn't know rosewood from cedar, but if you find an agent that wants to be "Employee Of The Month" and wants to say "hey, this guitar has rosewood!", then it's his word against yours... They have the ultimate power of holding your instrument in customs, seizing it, and you'll be left with nothing.

Have all your paperwork in order, permits, etc., etc., so that they have nothing to find issue with.

Just my friendly opinion...

ChrisMartin

Thanks psychebilly for that warning.

I was already aware of the requirement for CITES papers for importing guitars with restricted materials, but my question (maybe not clearly explained) is if I have a guitar made with woods that are NOT restricted is there still a requirement for some supporting paperwork?
Say, it has spruce and maple construction and we could find a suitable substitute for ebony for the fretboard and bridge would it still need official papers or would the appropriate description listing the materials used on the invoice be enough to see it through?
Or simply put, if there is no restricted woods, no need for CITES?
If so, what are people using as a suitable substitute for rosewood or ebony?