New regulations Jan 2 will kill all cross border shipping of guitars

[Kerry Brown]

https://reverb.com/news/new-cites-r...ter&utm_term=0_5889ed6702-eb4a3636e7-57057585

A new regulation takes effect on January 2, 2017 that calls for documentation when shipping instruments internationally that contain any amount of any kind of rosewood or certain types of bubinga.

It does not apply to instruments shipped within the borders of your country or instruments carried for personal use while traveling internationally [unless they contain more than 22 lbs. (10 kg) of the regulated woods].

This is a developing story, with details emerging as government agencies figure out how to create processes around the new requirements. To what degree they are enforced remains to be seen.

 

[DonP]

I guess Gibson will be OK for exports, since they are now understandably careful about documenting the sources of their timber, but this will play havoc with travelling musicians. And probably the better the musician the worse the problem, because their instruments are likely to be further removed from their origins.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I guess Gibson will be OK for exports, since they are now understandably careful about documenting the sources of their timber, but this will play havoc with travelling musicians. And probably the better the musician the worse the problem, because their instruments are likely to be further removed from their origins.

There are exceptions for musicians carrying personal instruments. What it will kill is private sales and small manufacturer sales.

 

[syscokid]

A new regulation takes effect on January 2, 2017...

Thanks for posting this interesting info.

 

[syscokid]

Judging by the information I've been just reading, if I want to sell one of my guitars with a rosewood fretboard to somebody in Canada, I have to apply for a pre-convention permit that will cost me $75. Plus on the application, I have to exchange my information with the sellers information on the permit. The Reverb article also states that initially these permits could take months to be approved.

 

[Heket]

I've decided to start saving for a Kala California solid body u-bass, then I found out that they are indefinitely halting all international shipping This also applies to their ukuleles. My local music store is a Kala dealer and easier makes their biggest chunk of profit from the ukulele craze, but now they're facing getting no more shipments.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I've decided to start saving for a Kala California solid body u-bass, then I found out that they are indefinitely halting all international shipping This also applies to their ukuleles. My local music store is a Kala dealer and easier makes their biggest chunk of profit from the ukulele craze, but now they're facing getting no more shipments.

This will definitely hurt smaller manufacturers the most. Gibson, Fender, etc. can afford the extra paperwork and pass the price on. Small manufacturers will probably lose a lot of their foreign buyers. It really doesn't matter if the US ignores this. The regulation is world wide and the countries the item is coming into need the documentation or the shipment will be rejected at the border. This will also kill reverb, eBay, etc. sales to/from foreign countries. I know the US people think so what but this will hurt many manufacturers that are already hurting, both in the US and outside of the US. Despite those espousing protection the US market itself can only support so many manufacturers. Without world wide orders some will go under. I was going to sell off some of my collection locally. I think I'll wait for a year and see what happens to prices. I expect, at least in Canada and Europe, used guitars with rosewood boards will be going up in price as imported guitars go up because of this.

 

[Heket]

Well I did hear Kala was going to try using maple for their boards. What begs the question is that, given the troubles Gibson and others have had in the past, why hadn't they been prepared for this sooner? I hope we see the return of baked maple, I quite like that. I don't like the coating that regular maple gets.