What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Moving to Canada, CITES and Phytosanitary Certs.

Well, I have an update on trying to move my CP collection to Canada, and I am ready to let you know what my experience has been. My situation is that I am moving my entire household from the USA to Canada to attend graduate school. I have 40 carnivorous plants about half of which are CITES Appendix II protected species. Overall, the most difficult portion of the task was getting accurate information, since international moves with collections of CITES Appendix II species is not an everyday occurrence. Customs and wildlife officials seem to be most familiar with tourists who illegally import a CITES protected species but are less familiar with the legalities of household moves.

I sent emails in April to both Canadian (AIRS and CIFA) and US officials (APHIS and the US Fish and Wildlife Service). The Canadians said that I would probably need a phytosanitary certificate from the US because of a pending change in the import regulations but to check back in June. The US officials said that I would need a CITES export certificate.

I filled out and submitted a 3-200-32 Petition for CITES "HOUSEHOLD PLANTS/SINGLE SHIPMENT" export/re-export permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The cost of this was $50. The permit was ultimately rejected on two grounds:

1. They required a destination address.
2. Insufficient documentation to prove that I didn’t poach the plants.
Of course, I don’t have a destination address yet. I’m a student who rents. However, the documentation was another issue. I have mostly man-made hybrids, e.g., seed-grown neps from crosses made in the USA. There is no way they could have been poached! But common sense does not apply here. But then again, CITES is not about protecting endangered species; it’s about restricting trade in endangered species. Restricting trade in hybrids does close a loophole that could be exploited.

Nevertheless, US Fish and Wildlife demanded to know that the original parent plants were brought legally with CITES permits—as if I would know that. Receipts of purchase or transactions of trades were considered to be insufficient and irrelevant unless I could prove that the people I got them from had CITES permits. The US Fish and Wildlife Service was the worst agency I had to deal with—they were ignorant, incompetent, bureaucratic, obstructionist, and skirted very close to the legal definition of slander by implying at one point that I may be a poacher—the cheek!

At this point I was considering giving up half my collection. I even gave away some of my plants.

In the meantime, I looked into the process of getting a phytosanitary certificate. This could have been potentially the worst hurdle for me to overcome. Unlike the CITES export certificate which would affect only half my collection, failure to get a phytosanitary certificate would have affected my entire collection: sarrs, neps, dews, pings, utrics… everything. And again, the greatest hurdle here was the dearth of information.

First, there are two kinds of phyto certs: one issued by the state and one by the USDA. The USDA is the only one that would have been acceptable; a certificate issued by the Illinois Dept of Agriculture would not have sufficed for an international move. In order to obtain the USDA certificate, I would have had to create an account on the APHIS automated system, http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_exports/pcit.shtml and paid the $70 fee in advance, then show up at my scheduled time at the USDA inspection station at the Port Huron port of entry.

Now, there is some confusion over phyto certs. The inspectors are not looking for aphids, scale, thrips, mealybugs, or any of those other common infestations that are ubiquitous. They are inspecting for signs of exotic pathogens and infestations, such as, Emerald Ash Borer, giant African snail, black spot of Japanese pear, apple proliferation phytoplasma, barberry, carnation tortrix, watermark disease of willow, pale cyst nematode, black rot of grape, Andean potato latent virus, and leaf spot of hemp.

Things began to turn around when I emailed the Canadian CIFA official this month. She said that it would not be necessary for me to get a phyto cert, because the new regulations would not be put into effect until September 2010. The only stipulation is that I must personally accompany my plants through the border crossing and limit the number of plants to 50 or less. So, at this point, half my collection was saved.

Then, this morning, I was reviewing Memorandum D2-3-2 on “Former Residents of Canada Tariff” regarding the importation of goods and the exemption of tariffs on stuff brought back into Canada, and I noticed in section 64, a line that said, “some species imported for non-commercial purposes only are exempt from the requirements of the CITES permit requirements.” The memo said to consult the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act, which is Canada’s implementation of the CITES convention, http://www.cites.ec.gc.ca. Wild Animal and Plant Trade Regulations SOR/96-263 stated in Section 15(1):

Subject to sections 16 and 18, an individual is exempt from holding an import or export permit issued under subsection 10(1) of the Act for any animal or plant, or any part or derivative of one, that is listed in Schedule I but not in Schedule II or Schedule III and that is a personal effect or a household effect…​

Note that “Schedule” a schedule for the act and is not the same as the CITES “Appendix.” Schedule I includes CITES Appendixes I-III. Schedule II is a short list of “other” animals always requiring import certs, e.g., Racoon Dogs and Mongooses. And Schedule III is a list of endangered species, e.g., Beluga Whales. No CPs are on either Schedule II or III.

Furthermore, I figured that these regulations must be a reflection the CITES convention wording. So I looked up the treaty and, sure enough, it was there in Article VII(3), “The provisions of Articles III, IV and V shall not apply to specimens that are personal or household effects.” In short, it is not a personal or household effect until you get it to you home in your country of residence, but once you get it home it becomes exempt from the export permit requirement if your entire household is moving. The only other requirement is that I would not be able to dispose of any imported CITES plant for at least 90 days after I arrive in Canada.

In conclusion, it appears as though I don’t need either a phytosanitary certificate or a CITES export permit for my collection of CPs as long as I am moving my entire household and I am accompanying my plants. Canada Customs will require me to sign a declaration that I am importing these plants as my household goods, and that is all the paperwork I will need. I would like to thank Canada Customs for providing useful assistance and making its regulations clear, without which I would have never known that I did not need an export permit. Conversely, I would like to thanks US Fish and Wildlife for wasting my time and my money.

I would be happy to field any questions, but be warned that I am not a lawyer and am not giving legal advice.

-Hermes.
 
...Wow. You sure did your research... and I would like to back up that Canada is much more helpful with this kind of subject, as I found out with inquiries about small lots of seed. The US can be an ignorant jerkface.
 
Awesome writeup, Hermes. I'm sure a lot of people will find useful information from this. Once you get done with the whole ordeal I think it would be great to compile your experiences into a sticky for future reference.
~Joe
 
Awesome writeup, Hermes. I'm sure a lot of people will find useful information from this.
Agree!

Now - if I'm reading this correctly, the cites export permit isn't required because you're moving your entire household (good find on that!).

However, the fact that you don't need a phyto is because you're fitting into a window that closes in Sept - right?
She said that it would not be necessary for me to get a phyto cert, because the new regulations would not be put into effect until September 2010. The only stipulation is that I must personally accompany my plants through the border crossing and limit the number of plants to 50 or less. So, at this point, half my collection was saved.
 
Now - if I'm reading this correctly, the cites export permit isn't required because you're moving your entire household (good find on that!).

Yes. Because I'm moving an entire household, I will be exempt from needing a CITES export permit. Unless, of course, I'm importing something on the Schedule II or III short lists, e.g., a mongoose or beluga whale. Sir, is that a beluga whale in your luggage? :-))

However, the fact that you don't need a phyto is because you're fitting into a window that closes in Sept - right?

That is also correct. Right now, a phyto is not needed for house plants under the household effect exemption. But that loophole closes in September. I guess too many people were bringing in virus-ridden veggies.

-Hermes.
 
Thanks for sharing, Dave. Glad you were able to tote them over the man-made line!
 
Wow. Very good for you. Very glad to see you made that window.
I probably would have just filed for CITES and Phyto and, if rejected, would not have a clue what to do.
 
I work in airport operations, and spend a great deal of time working with the customs agents their agri agents. In short: I have never worked with a more unpleasant group of people in my life. I thought the FAA or TSA would take the cake, but nope these folks have them beat by a mile. They are very 'my way or the highway' types, and if you dare question them be prepared to face the wrath. I am there in a position help smooth things over if any facilities go down or abnormal ops happen. Yet they will still treat us like crap! They approach every situation from an adversarial perspective. You are assumed to be wrong. One time they reported a water leak. I showed up to get a more accurate description of the problem; location, size, impact on services, etc. to use to fill out the work order for the mx folks. The sup on duty completely flipped out that I didn't check in with them first (even though I have all security clearances and accesses req'd - they don't own the facilities, we do, they lease it from us, plus there is no such 'check in' procedure req'd for us), so I walked away. I told them to have fun without any water in the building. 3 hours later they call up and apologize... arseholes. Plus, I've found one agent will give one answer that will differ completely from what another agent will say, in regards to questions I've asked about plant imports. What a joke. <vent over>

Anyway man, sorry to hear all the grief you are getting. What an ordeal, but at least it sounds like it's going to work out. You are far more patient that I.
 
It's not just agri customs. I once had 4 tires for my jeep held up at the border by customs until I filed out multiple forms and had a security check done. They were being trucked from Canda to the US and because I was having them shipped to my home rather than a service garage they were suspect. Of what, I don't know.
 
  • #10
Final update. I crossed the US/Canada border yesterday. I declared every plant on my moving manifest, and I sailed through customs with all my plants in tow.

-Hermes.
 
  • #11
Glad you made with everything in good order.
 
  • #12
Welcome to the Great White north to both you and your intact collection. I spent a few days phoning government agencies up here trying to figure out what the trick was to getting certain types of plant material across the border in whatever way possible and ended up talking to the top CITES guy and he was completely baffled by my requests and basically ended up telling me that I would have nothing to worry about from their agency- I was seeing if a friend could bring a Ceph leaf across and the guy searched for a while and turned up nothing whatsoever about the Genus

Glad you made it through the tangle
 
  • #13
mabudon: Does that mean that one can send cephs up north without any paperwork other than a postage stamp?!
 
  • #14
No, not exactly- when taking what the CITES guy said and trying to mix everything I had heard from assorted other agencies, it got clear as mud. I was told that in many cases there are more regional lists- if I have a Ceph growing in my windowsill, the chances of me having poached it, or even the chance that it is a poached specimen are so low that it isn't on the priority list for transactions between the US and Canada- he literally could not find it on the master list that is used by the Canadian agency.

Where it gets sticky is phytosanitary and import papers, and as Hermopolis and others described, it basically comes down to luck and exactly which agencies you decide to deal with, so it's pretty much a case of keep asking around til you get the answer closest to the one you want and deal with them.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, I do not want to appear to be spreading incorrect information :D
 
  • #15
It's not just agri customs. I once had 4 tires for my jeep held up at the border by customs until I filed out multiple forms and had a security check done. They were being trucked from Canda to the US and because I was having them shipped to my home rather than a service garage they were suspect. Of what, I don't know.

People stuff drugs in tires to hide them. Read about a guy in Fort Worth TX who bought a camaro from a police auction and found 32 lbs. of Mary-Jo-Warner (pot) in the spare. :-))
He was scared to tell them too, didn't think they would believe him if he turned it in. ???

---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:50 AM ----------

Oh, awesome you made it through the red tape herm!
 
  • #16
justjack said:
Oh, awesome you made it through the red tape herm!

Thanks guys! I'm glad to be finally in Toronto and starting to get my house back into order. I'm holed up in temporary housing for 3 weeks until I can move into my new apartment. I just checked my plants tonight, and it looks like the only things I lost were the d. regia, d. filiformis "florida red," d. capensis "alba," and d. burmanii. Everything else appears to be in good order even if a little etoliated. It's a bit odd that the sundews faired the worst. The sarrs, neps, utrics, and the lone heli made the trip very well.

I can't wait to settle into my terrarium setup and get back to some trading.

-Hermes.
 
  • #17
People stuff drugs in tires to hide them. Read about a guy in Fort Worth TX who bought a camaro from a police auction and found 32 lbs. of Mary-Jo-Warner (pot) in the spare. :-))
He was scared to tell them too, didn't think they would believe him if he turned it in.

Hard to hide something in an UNMOUNTED tuebless tire through, which these were, they could have easily seen that.
 
Back
Top