text: The volume of international trade in wildlife commodities is immense and continues to rise. According to an analysis to the 2012 Harmonized System customs statistics, global import of wildlife products amounted to US$187 billion, of which fisheries commodities accounted for $113 billion; plants and forestry products for $71 billion; non-fishery animal for $3 billion including live animals, parts and derivatives.
  However, the global trade of wildlife commodities is ineffectively monitored and accounted for due to the constraint of the HS Code System used by the customs worldwide. The majority of international imports of wildlife are only recorded in extremely basic and general categories, such as 'plant' or 'animal products', with no further taxonomic detail. It is estimated that near 50% of the global import of plant and 70% of animal products are imported as general categories, with an exception for fisheries (ca. 5%), thanks to various multilateral fishery management agreements that requires taxon-specific fish catch reporting.
  Many jurisdictions rely on the declared HS Code of the consignments for detection and prosecution of illegal wildlife import. The lack of specificity of HS Code precludes effective monitoring and traceability of global wildlife trade. There is an increasing call for a reform of the HS Code to strengthen monitoring and enforcement of global wildlife trade.
  Reasons for concern
  Different forms of wildlife trade or use (utilization, hunting, trapping, collection or over-exploitation) are the second major threat to endangered mammals and it also ranks among the first ten threats to birds, amphibians and cycads.