Times are different now. There is The Department of Homeland Security. Those are the folks in dark blue that protect our borders. APHIS and other government agencies like Fish and Wildlife and Public Health are no longer working at the entry points of the USA. That being said, USDA requires all propagative plant material to have a phytosanitary certificate from the exporting country. There are a few exceptions - (small lots of seed permits and experimental permits) CITES material would be documented on the Phyto as well as with the CITES documents. It is up to the exporting country to determine the necessity of CITES documents. In the situation you described below, this is how it works today.. Your would be better off contacting the US CITES representative at APHIS HQ in Riverdale, MD. The folks at the Plant Inspection Stations are good, but they are only validators and enforcement officers. Much has changed in 10 years. USA and APHIS as the enforcement agency for USA must follow the laws of CITES. In reality there "should" be no exceptions. It is an international agreement, USA has agreed to participate with CITES and ESA. For the most part this is the enforcement element that everyone notices the most. It seems unfair when an individual is traveling with a few rare plants and the government "seizes" them for no apparent reason and then "destroys them" contrast this to whole suppliers of rare plants. So what really happens? When the plants are presented or discovered at the ports of entry in the USA. Certain documents are necessary to allow those plants to enter. As mentioned the Phyto is the most important document. For rare plants, a CITES document. Because the US is currently busy funding a freedom operation to the folks in the middle east, government resources are limited and now importers myst pay a small fee for an CITES import permit $70 which is every two years (don't be too concerned- because in the very near future, the price will triple to about $350 for all import permits- Thanks be to George). If you don't have the documents- the government has to follow some specific guidelines to process the plant material. 1. the importer is provided 21 days to obtain the necessary documents from the exporting country. The plants sit in a not so nice place (usually depending of the plant inspection station it's as good as they have) at least it's not anything like where the plants were growing prior to being transported to the USA. After this period of time, the importer should be contacted to verify that they have produced the documents or the plants will be sent to the country of export or to a rescue center. Usually 15 days is the grace period for this. If the importer fails to obtain the documents. USA will contact the country of export and offer the material back to that country. The exporting country must pay for freight costs only. 99% of the time this is rejected. Then the plants are referred to Fish and Wildlife who looks art the address of the importer and follows a list of available rescue centers. They try to make the the rescue center NOT the same as the address or State of the importer. Too many folks at botanical gardens pulled fast ones and eventually the government figured it out. Then, now almost 60 days after the initial import into the USA, the plants are off to a rescue center. They arrive often very tired and in bad shape. Definitely not happy plants. But this doesn't mean you can't import. You just have to be aware of what the rules are and know who to contact. Remember the official documents. Those need to be obtained before the plants leave the country by the appropriate government official. Not every government is good at posting their information on the web, so you may have to research. Sometimes difficult when in Burma and your skill in either Gurma, Fulani, Dejula, or Tuareg is a little rusty trying to find out who and communicate to their government CITES representative may pose some problems. I'd recommend ordering plants on line or doing a lot of research before you travel. Have your permits in place before the plants or money are exchanged. Be prepared to work with people who may not know as much about what you are trying to do as you know. Often regulatory people have to do a lot of things and sometimes they just don't know what it is you are trying to accomplish. It's bad, it's unfortunate- but think about all the things someone expects you to do and how much do you know about all the things you don't do an a daily basis. Word of caution, trying to fool people will work for a while, but when you run into someone as smart- or smarter than yourself, you may have to explain your actions and if you have a history, often the Government is not so forgiving and challenges all that you've done in the past as probably not so innocent. They are the Department of Homeland Security and doubt and paranoia are part of the corporate psyche. APHIS is still in charge of policy- For now. some contact information: CITES Program Coordinator (APHIS headquarters in Riverdale Md) 301-734-5312 East Coast CITES Specialist (Jamaica, NY) 718.553.1732 West Coast CITES Specialist (San Francisco, CA) 650.876.9093 Permit information hhttp://aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/… A link to the manual used to regulated CITES plants- slow to download but this is what the government uses http://aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/… Plant Inspection Info (large pdf document) with current information http://aphis.usda.gov/publications/plant_health/… Bill On Dec 22, 2007, at 8:55 AM, Judy Glattstein wrote: > A decade or two ago I was lecturing / visiting in England. A friend > there offered me some Galanthus cultivars. Since Galanthus is on CITES > Appendix II, I telephoned John Arcery at the Kennedy Airport APHIS > inspection station to explain the situation. I suggested that my > friend > and I would go to a notary in said friend's town and testify to the > fact > that these were A) cultivars and B) propagated, not wild collected > (though how one could wild-collect cultivars in the first place . . .) > After all, I already had a general import permit that included > Amaryllidaceae (I'd gone for plant families when applying for the > permit, why be niggardly and restrict to genus, let alone a specific > species.) > > Not possible, said John. I would need government level export and > import > documents. > > What would happen if I brought them in without said documentation on > both sides? > > I was sternly informed that the bulbs would be confiscated and sent to > the nearest approved educational institution. Which, in this instance, > would be the New York Botanical Garden. Where I was then and am now an > instructor. I thought about this for a bit, but decided that was > getting > complicated. > > Galanthus bulbs do look very much like those of Narcissus > bulbocodium . . . > > Judy in New Jersey, where gray skies and patchy iced-over snow look > gloomy rather than festive > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/