§23.23. What information is required on U.S. and foreign CITES documents?
50 C.F.R. § 23.23
Purpose. Article VI of the Treaty provides standard information that must be on a permit and certificate issued under Articles III, IV, and V. To identify a false or invalid document, any CITES document, including a CITES exemption document issued under Article VII, must contain standardized information to allow a Party to verify that the specimen being shipped is the one listed on the document and that the trade is consistent with the provisions of the Treaty.
CITES form. A CITES document issued by a Party must be issued in one or more of the three working languages of CITES (English, Spanish, or French). A CITES document from a non-Party may be in the form of a permit or certificate, letter, or any other form that clearly indicates the nature of the document and includes the information in paragraphs (c) through (e) of this section and the additional information in § 23.25.
Required information. Except for a phytosanitary certificate used as a CITES certificate for artificially propagated plants in paragraph (f) of this section, or a customs declaration label used to identify specimens being moved between registered scientific institutions (§ 23.48(e)(5)), a CITES document issued by a Party or non-Party must contain the information set out in this paragraph (listed alphabetically). Specific types of CITES documents must also contain the additional information identified in paragraph (e) of this section. A CITES document is valid only when it contains the following information:
Purpose of transaction. If the purpose is not identified by a written description, the CITES document must contain one of the following codes:
Additional required information. The following describes the additional information that is required for specific types of documents (listed alphabetically):
Phytosanitary certificate. A Party may use a phytosanitary certificate as a CITES document under the following conditions:
The Party has provided copies of the certificate, stamps, and seals to the Secretariat.
The certificate is used only when all the following conditions are met—
The plants are being exported, not re-exported.
The plants are Appendix-II species, or are hybrids of one or more Appendix-I species or taxa that are not annotated to treat hybrids as Appendix-I specimens.
The plants were artificially propagated in the exporting country.
The certificate contains the following information—
The scientific name of the species, including the subspecies when needed to determine the level of protection of the specimen under CITES, using standard nomenclature as it appears in the CITES Appendices or the references adopted by the CoP.
The type (such as live plant or bulb) and quantity of the specimens authorized in the shipment.
A stamp, seal, or other specific indication stating that the specimen is artificially propagated (see § 23.64).
Notes, amendments, and revision history
Amendments
[72 FR 48448, Aug. 23, 2007, as amended at 79 FR 30420, May 27, 2014; 79 FR 32677, June 6, 2014; 87 FR 10080, Feb. 23, 2022]
Authority
Authority: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (March 3, 1973), 27 U.S.T. 1087; and Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.
Source
Source: 72 FR 48448, Aug. 23, 2007, unless otherwise noted.
Amendments
[72 FR 48448, Aug. 23, 2007, as amended at 79 FR 30420, May 27, 2014; 79 FR 32677, June 6, 2014; 87 FR 10080, Feb. 23, 2022]