New CITES Document Requirements for Importers and Exporters Begin Jan. 2, FWS Says
Changes to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listings and other import and export requirements will take effect Jan. 2 for U.S. importers and exporters of certain species, including some rosewoods, the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a recent public bulletin (here). As of Jan. 2, species added to, or deleted from, CITES Appendices I and II at the recent CITES convention in September and October (see 1610040064) will require CITES documentation as specified under the amended listings, FWS said. The import, export or re-export of shipments of these species that are accompanied by CITES documents reflecting an old listing or that lack CITES documents because no listing was previously in effect “must be completed by midnight (local time at the point of import/export)” on Jan. 1, 2017, FWS said.
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FWS included in its notice a list of species newly added to Appendices I and II, as well as species transferred between the two lists and species removed from the lists. CITES also recently issued a report detailing all the changes (see 1612190063). New additions to Appendix I include, among others, alligator lizards, land snails, the Titicaca water frog and several species of Alligator lizard. Added to Appendix II were several species of lizards and chameleons, the Tur, the Horned viper, Flapshell and Softshell turtles, newts, several species of frogs and sharks, stingrays, the Clarion angelfish, the nautilus, and several tree species including the ponytail palm, some types of rosewood, bubinga, baobab and African ginger. FWS posted a question and answers document on the new CITES requirements for rosewood to its website (here).
Species of cougar, zebra, honeyeater, boobook, crocodile and frog were moved from Appendix I to II, and species of pangolin, macaque, lizard and cactus, as well as the African grey parrot, were moved from Appendix II to I. The Wood bison and the plant species Tillandsia mauryanab were delisted entirely. Also agreed to by CITES in October were changes to marketing and labeling requirements for Vicuna, and several other amendments to annotations for listed species.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reminded importers and exporters of the new requirements as they apply to rosewoods, in a bulletin emailed Dec. 28 (here). Beginning Jan. 2, wood and wood products of rosewoods, palisanders, bubingas and kosso or African rosewood “must be accompanied by a [CITES] permit issued by the CITES Management Authority of the country of export or re-export. Shipments arriving in the destination country on or after January 2, 2017, without the required CITES documents may be held and seized or refused clearance,” APHIS said. “Shippers who have CITES-listed rosewood shipments that are already in route and will arrive in the destination country on or after January 2, 2017, should contact their CITES Management Authority (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the United States) to determine whether retrospectively issued documents may be issued by the exporting/re-exporting country and accepted by the importing country,” it said.