The exporter in the US is required to obtain a CITES re-export permit. No import permit is required by the Canadian LFS or importer. All corals, wild or cultured, are required to have CITES export permits (or re-export for US origin shipments).

The requirements are the same for commercial importers (LFS) as it is for the general public. The government isn't making you jump through any more hoops than a commercial importer. It is just more cost effective for the commercial importers to import corals due to economy of scale.

I have shipped alot of stuff up here from the US I do know most all paper work is done by the US exporter but I have had to fill out some paper work at customs office both personal and commercial but it seems on the personal side it happened more often. It's not a big deal I'll bet that the import paperwork mentioned above is the customs paper work, I believe that I had to declare what I was importing when it was personal items for customs fees amybe. I have read some where that places may require an order over a perdetermined $ amount. Now that is not from a exporter just some thing that I have read on a forum some where and believe me this issue has been talked about on most canadian forums.

Bill

ron99 is right. its why we dont get any ora corals here. they cant get permits for their stuff to ship here as they are not the country or origin for the species. its a bit retarded cus you have great propagation vendors unable to sell their stuff and pressure remains on wild collection.

I am all for propigated corals, and admin ORA has great fish.
But im at a lose for the enginered corals, im sure they look amazing and would love to have one in my tank, but at the cost of all the corals that died before they got thier good strain, it might be too risky.
I like canadas stance on genitic engineering laws, its something the usa should start too.