The former is meaningless without the latter. Don't forget where all of this began - The Humane Society bringing suit against 11 retailers in 2011 for selling fake fur garments made from Chinese "raccoon dog" fur, and the European Union's attempt to globally regulate wild-fur production through sanctions that have now reached our borders as Certification and Traceability via NAFA and our brethren to the North.

I'd rather not go through this song and dance once again - it's getting old - but if Boco wants serenade us with his NAFA-sponsored propaganda, I'll play.

They were invited to the ND Fur Takers summer convention and gave a talk. You have no clue what you are saying, since everything you know is at least second hand. Do you have a problem saying your fur is from ID and taken legally? That is all they want.

None of you will like what I'm going to say.
This is not government dictating what we are or, what we are not going to do,but it is free companies in a free country telling us trappers what they expect from us.I don't like it any more than you do.But ,it is what it is,and if you want to sell ,or be auctioned by them,than you better get with the program.Or don't sell to them,or through them. Very simple.
Like I said previous,I don't like it any more than any of you.

A "brief" overview of how we got here:

NAFA has been trying to resurrect the European fur market for years, and the only way that’ll happen is if fur coming into or going through European Union countries meets the EU’s Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS). The EU, Canada and Russia all signed on to this agreement in 1997-98. Thankfully, the United States did not sign on to AIHTS.

In an effort to leverage AIHTS compliance from US fur producers (trappers and hunters), NAFA decided to create an industry-concocted solution in the form of Fur Certification and Traceability (FCT). It’s basically an end-run around state and local trapping and hunting regs in the US.

Again, traceability is meaningless unless AIHTS compliance CAN BE CERTIFIED all the way down the fur chain. And this is the crux of NAFA’s Fur Certification and Traceability program. Ya gotta follow the bouncing FCT ball.

It’s an effort to gain AIHTS compliance by establishing an industry-wide set of standardized practices that would force wild fur producers to comply with European Union standards as a requirement to sell fur to NAFA directly or through their agents.

It's designed to standardize the methods we're allowed to use, the equipment we're allowed to use, the species we're allowed to trap, when we're allowed to trap, who is allowed to trap, what credentials are required to trap, where and with whom we're allowed to sell our fur, and so on. The model here is Canada's federalized system, which is a slow rollout of ever-increasing regulations and restrictions on all of the above.

NAFA of course denies this, but NAFA’s own policy initiatives betray that denial. Why? Because without AIHTS compliance the EU fur market remains closed to them. And because the US is a major source of wild fur production, the only way to reignite the EU wild fur market is by gaining AIHTS compliance on some level from US trappers.

At this early stage compliance begins by getting trappers here in the US to sign a declaration indicating they've followed their state and local laws and BMPs. Once NAFA gets that ball rolling – with our incremental cooperation – the end point is a de facto (industry implemented) regulatory system for which we have no voice, no representation, and no local or state sovereignty over our trapping heritage. What we will have is a set of rules, regulations and standards that originated from the European Union.

And if you want to know why Canada Goose jumped the shark, Google the HSUS FTC Petitions on retailers selling real fur garments as faux fur - Canada Goose has been named in at least one of the suits.

A simple answer to your conspiracy theory on NAFA leading the charge on certification, why would NAFA want to cutoff the supply of fur? NAFA doesn;t make money selling popcorn!!!