MUMBAI: Aiming to make foreign travel easier for musicians, a US proposal stating to streamline international customs checks for travelers with musical instruments is currently being debated upon. The proposal is expected to be voted on Friday and if approved, travelers would have to carry a ‘musical instrument passport’ valid for three years.

The aim of the proposal is to protect musical instruments that legally contain endangered wildlife products like exotic hardwoods, ivory or tortoise shell. The topic is being discussed by delegates attending a global biodiversity conference in Bangkok this week.

US Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe, who is leading Washington's delegation to the 178-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Bangkok said, “The goal is not to burden musicians, but to make foreign travel easier by doing away with long and tiresome import and export permits and ensuring legal instruments are not confiscated.”

He also stated that he was not aware of any cases of international customs agents seizing instruments, and if it has happened, it's been extremely rare. But concern over the issue within the US music industry rose in 2011, when federal agents raided the factories and offices of Gibson Guitar to seize what they said was illegal ebony wood shipped to the guitar maker from India. Gibson was the subject of a similar raid in 2009 for using wood allegedly exported illegally from Madagascar.

Ashe told an agency, “People started raising serious questions about their instruments. They said, if my guitar contains Brazilian rosewood, if my violin bow is made of exotic hardwood, is it going to be taken away from me when I travel?”

Amongst all the music instruments, Violin bows are a major concern. Some are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and owners risk having them confiscated.

“What we want to do is make sure people can comply with the law, and do so easily. So we came up with this idea of the musical instrument passport that would allow people to have one document to move through multiple countries,” he added.

Ashe said his department had consulted with musicians' organizations including the International Music Products Association and the League of American Orchestras, which have called for CITES to protect the ability of musicians to travel abroad with their instruments and appealed for exemptions for musicians traveling with instruments that can be declared as personal effects.

At present, musicians whose instruments contain internationally regulated wildlife products are supposed to get export permits or certifications from every country they visit.

In the US, the passport-like documents would be issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service and can be obtained by mail. However, in other nations they would be issued by the relevant authority there.

The passport issue is one of 70 proposals under discussion at the CITES conference. Most of the proposals will determine whether member nations increase or lower the level of protection for various species, including polar bears, sharks, rays and timber.