The Obama administration wants to ban virtually all of the elephant ivory trade in the United States.

The ban will impose new restrictions on the import, export, and commercial sale of elephant ivory within the United States, with some exceptions. The exceptions include a narrow class of antiques that are exempt from regulation under the Endangered Species Act, and items imported for commercial purposes before 1990 when international commercial trade in these species was prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Anyone proposing to sell elephant ivory or rhino horn would be responsible for documenting that these ivory or horn pieces are exempt. The Service expects this to be a small fraction of the current domestic trade. Anyone who currently owns legally obtained ivory may keep it.

If rigorously enforced, the new rules should help slow the killings in Africa. The United States is the second-largest market for ivory in the world.