CITES certificate

CITES is the acronym for Convention on international trade in species of endangered fauna and flora, agreement signed in Washington in 1975 (and therefore also known by the name of Washington Convention). The Convention regulates the trade of specimens of numerous species of animals and plants for which their purchase, sale and possession (including their parts and products such as ivory, bones, animal skins or wood, seeds, bark for plants) outside of this regulation is an international crime punishable in all the signatory states of the Convention. From 1 January 2017, the Guardia di Finanza has been the competent authority to carry out customs controls on the matter in Italy. To produce, market, work and transport specimens of species and their products it is necessary to obtain a Cites Certificate. In Italy the control bodies are the Ministry of Economic Development - Directorate General for International Commercial Policy - Division II - CITES which supervises the issue of import and export licenses, and the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, through the Arma dei Carabinieri - Unit Command for Forest, Environmental and Agri-food Protection (CUTFAA), for the issue of re-export certificates and community certificates.