Over the past few decades, CITES has had a limited impact in the musical world. One of the main controls of CITES that involved musical instruments was that of Dalbergia nigra (Brazilian Rosewood). This was listed as a CITES appendix i controlled species on June 11th, 1992, making it illegal to harvest D. nigra after this date and requiring export (and sometimes import) permits for the life of any finished goods which used it. On Jan 2nd, 2017 we saw a genus wide listing of CITES ii controlled Dalbergia. That meant, all rosewood (and Bubinga) was placed on the CITES ii appendix and although it did not make harvesting the rosewood illegal, it did require permits for any commercial export/import of raw materials or finished goods made from Rosewood or Bubinga.
After a proposal passed at the Conference of Parties (tri-annual CITES conference) in August of 2019 which exempted finished musical instruments, finished musical instrument parts and finished musical instrument accessories, the music industry was granted relief from CITES ii rosewood regulations for “finished” products. As of the implementation date of November 26th, 2019, most CITES management authorities around the world have adopted this exemption but there are a few exceptions (Hong Kong for example). It is always necessary to verify the CITES regulations of the specific countries any exports or imports are going to.
PRS Guitars strongly encourages consumers to utilize the many informative documents set forth by governing agencies around the world.
The United States Fish & Wildlife Service website pertaining to CITES info can be found here: CITES | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Frequently asked CITES questions can also be found on the CITES website: CITES FAQ