The move’s designed to  remove the large fog of legal trade that still conceals illegal ivory transactions.

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Under current guidelines, ivory can be sold if documents are produced showing  it was brought into the United States before it was listed as endangered or that the elephant died of natural causes.

The new rules will restrict sales to genuine antiques, like ivory statues, artwork or chiseled chess pieces, that have been lawfully imported, as well as items like musical instruments that were made using less than 200 grams of ivory.

The new rules aim to curb the rampant slaughter of the elephant that now reached  96 deaths a day.

They also intend to severely restrict the African ivory market in the United States, which is the world’s second-largest consumer of illegally poached ivory.

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