"K Barrett" wrote in message news:pZoBa.1033095$F1.124164@sccrnsc04...
There ya go!
K Barrett


Not necessarily, and not in this case, unless something big has
changed in the last 6 weeks. Many countries around the world don't go
any further than the seeds (ie, don't care whether the seed came from
fruit from a poisonous tree, so to speak) -- as long as they're
growing in a flask, that's good enough for them. (In the case of
Taiwan, it's not even a CITES signatory, though it does supposedly
have domestic laws that mirror the key CITES provisions and its
paperwork is obviously accepted by most countries including the US.)

In this case, "paperwork" by itself isn't good enough since the USFWS
does not recognize the legal exportation of any of the plants from the
range state. Unless they change their position, the only way to
legally get plants without an Appendix I permit would be as art prop
from the range state itself. I don't know if Vietnam has exported
anything recently, but given their past history of reneging on CITES
documentation, I sure wouldn't be the first to place a big order.


FWIW, the USFWS says their interpretation of CITES is backed up by the
CITES Secretariat itself. Since the practice is so widespread, one
idly wonders said Secretariat don't do anything to try to stop it, but
that's another story. Yet more fodder for the anti-CITES folks, IMHO.


I've also seen these flasks here in the US -- in some cases I'm sure
the possessor knew they were "illegal," in others, I think they may
not have realized it. It's probably easy enough to get them in by
judiciously labelling them with just a number, if not actually
falsifying the tag. Also, unless something big has changed recently,
AOS rules don't allow for judging them and you'd be asking for trouble
by exhibiting or selling them at a very public venue.

MG