Has anyone gone through the CITES export permit thing for exporting an antique flute (or accordion, or bagpipes or whatever) with ivory rings from the US?
Regards,
Clinton
I sent an ivory-headed flute to Japan (or Korea - can’t remember which) and didn’t do anything special - just a normal customs form. Maybe I got lucky…
Pat
I have.
It’s a pain. Especially if the country it’s coming from isn’t familiar with the CITES permit process.
I did it recently with a beautiful boxwood Rudall&Rose and the trouble truly wasn’t worth it.
The amount of scrutiny for such a small amount of ivory…insane.
But with paperwork in hand, etc, it arrived just fine…6 months after the process started.
A well-known flutemaker told me he simply marks the box “old flute” and sends it. No one ever stops it as they have way too many other things to worry about.
You watch, one day they won’t.
Hi David,
Thanks for the info. The flute would be coming from the US into Canada. My preliminary inquiries seem to indicate that, between our countries, at least, it shouldn’t be too onerous a hassle. We shall see…
Clinton
Shipping overseas using the US Postal Service recently became more difficult. There is a new customs declaration form (2976-A) which requires you to provide an “EEL” (Exemption or Exclusion Legend). This is apparantly a requirement from the Department of Homeland Security and is somehow protecting us from terrorists. Anyone interested in the gory details can read the discussion on an ebay forum here.
I followed that advice and the shipments went through just fine, though I am finding the accomodations at Guantanamo Bay to be rather spartan.
Dave Copley
Loveland Ohio
I bet the water boarding is fun, though…
The main thing about this export, it is 200 year old ivory rings on the boxwood flute, we need to document them for the dumbos at the border, or are they called mounties?
Kanada Kustoms. Our mounties are not involved, unless KK asks them to take me to jail for trying to import elephant ivory rings cunningly concealed as flute reinforcement rings… Sigh.
I concur that this is most ridiculous, but here we are. And now that I have talked about it in a public forum, I cannot even plead ignorance!
Clinton