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NAMM launches “action initiative” on endangered species regulations
Recent changes in the enforcement of the CITES treaty (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), along with proposed changes in the treaty itself, could have a devastating effect on musical instrument makers and dealers and could even make criminals of many musicians who carry their instruments across international borders. NAMM (the International Music Products Association) is lobbying federal officials on these issues and has declared an “action initiative,” asking guitar owners, dealers and makers to voice their support with a web-based letter-writing campaign.
Dealers, guitarmakers and importers have already been adversely affected by tighter enforcement of restrictions on Brazilian rosewood and the implementation of a near-impossible permit process in the U.S. Now the 160-plus CITES member countries have been asked to restrict Honduras rosewood, Nicaraguan rosewood and pernambuco. These woods do need protection, but the proposal does not stop with restricting raw lumber. It extends to finished goods – not just new goods but all existing goods, such as violin bows. Virtually every good-quality violin bow made in the last 200 years is made of pernambuco, and if the proposal goes through, it will be illegal to cross an international border with a pernambuco bow without a permit. The permitting process requires a separate permit for every border crossing which, combined with the cumbersome process of getting even one permit for U.S. export, makes it legally impossible to tour internationally with a CITES-restricted instrument. These restrictions already apply to finished goods – including numerous vintage guitars – containing Brazilian rosewood, elephant ivory or tortoiseshell (hawksbill sea turtle).
NAMM has a governmental affairs department with an attorney on retainer. NAMM';s attorney effectively lobbied the CITES board when Brazilian rosewood was added to Appendix I (the most restricted group) of CITES in 1992. NAMM is now calling for an “action initiative” and has set up a web page with a form letter that can be edited and personalized to reflect each individual';s concerns. The letter can be emailed to the appropriate federal authorities from the website or printed for fax or regular mail. The CITES board meets in Geneva, Switzerland, in June, but the Fish and Wildlife Service (which administers CITES in the U.S.) will only be accepting letters from the public until April 20. The URL is http://www.namm.org/government-relations/export-restrictions-alert.
There are two points that should be made in a letter to Fish and Wildlife. First, existing finished goods should not be restricted on Appendix II items, specifically on Honduran rosewood, Nicaraguan rosewood and pernambuco. While the three woods are not widely used in guitars, the precedent of restricting finished goods – which would cover all pre-existing products – could be devastating if applied to common guitar woods. More important, though, in the long run is the need for a practical certification process – preferably one in which individual instruments, both new and pre-existing, can be permanently certified as to age and materials. Again, the time to act is now, before the April 20 deadline.
Many readers of VG, and virtually all major vintage guitar dealers and makers, have been aware of the ramifications of the CITES treaty since its implementation in 1974 or at least since the addition of Brazilian rosewood to Appendix I in 1992. For items on Appendix I, finished goods as well as raw lumber can not cross international borders without a permit stating that the item was made before a certain date (1992 in the case of Brazilian rosewood). Prior to 1969, when Brazil stopped shipping rosewood as raw lumber, the use of Brazilian rosewood in musical instruments was pervasive; even the makers of cheap guitars, mandolins and banjos used Brazilian rosewood for fingerboards. With the advent of CITES, shippers either got a permit for each instrument (which required a great deal of time and paperwork, plus a reciprocal permit on the part of the receiver) or else they simply lied on the declaration. Although we have heard of only a few cases where musicians have been stopped from crossing a border with their own personal instrument containing an Appendix I material, it has nevertheless been illegal to do so in the case of Brazilian rosewood since 1992.
The certification process in the United States has recently gone from cumbersome to near-impossible. Where a dealer used to be able to get a permit for an individual shipment, now a dealer has to list all inventory items containing CITES-protected materials and then list all of those that he plans to ship or carry across a border within the next sixth months. If the dealer should acquire another instrument with CITES-protected materials during that sixth month period, that instrument would have to wait until the next permit period before being eligible for a permit. In addition, customs officials in the U.S. and Japan in particular are scrutinizing shipments more carefully, requiring the Latin names of wood species and their country of origin before letting them enter the country. While dealers have become accustomed to lax enforcement, we do know of recent instances where a dealer';s shipment was stopped by Japanese customs and where a shipment of Chinese-made guitars coming into the U.S. was stopped for lack of proper documentation.
Two of the more commonly used guitar woods – Honduras mahogany and Brazilian mahogany - are currently on Appendix II and restricted only as raw lumber, but they are becoming so scarce that they could be moved in the future to Appendix I, where finished goods are restricted. That is the typical CITES scenario, where materials move from Appendix II to Appendix I as they become more endangered. However, the proposal to place pernambuco on Appendix II with restrictions on finished goods will set a precedent that makes it easier to put finished-goods restrictions on all future additions to Appendix II. It is likely that such woods as Madagascar rosewood, cocobolo and numerous other tropical hardwoods will soon follow that precedent, making it increasingly difficult to find a quality guitar that can be legally transported across an international border.
The need for a CITES agreement to protect tropical rainforests is inarguable, but the hardship that is being placed on owners of pre-existing instruments is unnecessary. We have until April 20 to make the Fish and Wildlife Service aware.
For more information, contact NAMM';s attorney: James M. Goldberg, Goldbert & Associates, PLLC, Suite 1000, 1101 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20036. 202-628-2929. Jimcounsel@aol.com.
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