Folks
I'm thinking - just thinking - of buying a guitar from USA and getting it shipped to the UK, and don't want to fall foul of CITES. The guitar is a 2004 Gibson and the current owner bought it in 2012.
Does anyone know anything about what paperwork I might need to get, if any? The regs are only supposed to apply to newer guitars but I wouldn't want to take a chance on buying it then customs destroying it! This isn't an ebay thing so I'd have no chance of getting my money back if it all went wrong. Theoretically it should be ok (I think) but obviously I want to be sure before parting with my wedge!
Has anyone imported a guitar from the USA in the last year or since these regs came in?
Thanks.
Comments
Aside from CITES you'll also have addition duty and costs to pay - why not buy inside the EU?
This is quite useful for CITES stuff:
https://www.andertons.co.uk/cites-law-guitarists
The ruling via the UK authorities for CITES is was the guitar legally imported into the EU before 1/1/17 - If so then no CITES required, but even though this guitar is older than 1/1/17, it was not imported into the EU, so yes a CITES certificate required
If it is a private seller then chances they won't be bothered and many retail outlets would rather try and sell it into the USA and ignore export as the hassle and time is a pain
Can take 4-8 weeks to get appropriate CITES for import/export