International travel with ebony pipes?

[billh]

To address the original question:

For ebony, this is not currently a problem. Information published by the DHS regarding Lacey Act enforcement has indicated that INDIVIDUALS travelling WITH THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS will not be 'targeted'. Lacey Act documentation will only be required for commercial shipments.

Note also that the new Lacey Act provisions currently do not apply to wind instruments, so this is doubly a non-issue for travelling wind instrument musicians and is likely to remain so for some years yet. Let us hope that the 'instrument passport' procedure is streamlined before then.

As others have pointed out, some species have been subject to CITES regulations for years, so the previous issues with elephant ivory and Brazilian rosewood still apply. Most CITES timber restrictions do not apply to finished items, only lumber and logs (though there are a few exceptions).

- Bill

[malanstevenson]

Thanks, Bill, that's just the information I was looking for.

[Calum]

http://www.pipesdrums.com/article/confi ... us-border/

Ivory, and it seems they knew fine well their paperwork was not in order, but the lesson is there.

[tommykleen]

Has anyone heard any stories of within country travel hassles over ivory instruments? That would not surprise me .

t

[bensdad]

There was that guy from PETA who chained himself to Mattie Connolly at the Baltimore tionol...