When CITES was adopted in Washington in 1973, the hawksbill turtle was listed in Appendix I and II. A subspecies of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean (Eretmochelys imbricata imbricata) was listed in Appendix I and a subspecies of the Indian and Pacific Oceans (E. imbricata bissa) in Appendix II. At the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Berne, 1976), E. imbricata bissa was transferred from Appendix II to Appendix I and as a result, the species as a whole was listed in Appendix I.

When Japan became a Party to CITES in 1980, Japan entered a reservation with regard to the hawksbill turtle in accordance with Article XXIII of the Convention because it believed that the hawksbill was not endangered. As such, even if Japan was a Party to CITES, Japan continued to import bekko materials legally. At that time, there was some international criticism against Japan because Japan imported bekko materials from Party states. At its fourth meeting (Gaborone, 1983), the Conference of the Parties adopted Resolution Conf. 4.25 on effects of reservations. If Japan accepts the Resolution, it would become impossible to import bekko materials from Parties without a reservation. As a result, Japan was forced to limit its trade partners to non-Parties and Parties with a reservation such as the Solomon Islands and Cuba even if such a limitation might be detrimental to the status of the species.

When Japan entered a reservation in 1980, it established its import quota of 30 tonnes. In 1989, the bekko industry decided to reduce its import quota to 20 tonnes. In November 1990, the industry held an international symposium in Nagasaki and invited many marine turtle scientists at the industry's expenses. Those invitees included many famous scientists such as George Balazs from Hawaii, Colin Limpus from Queensland and some NGO activists such as Marydell Donnelly from the Center for Marine Conservation (CMC). It is this symposium that Cuba was first exposed to international arena in terms of the management of marine turtles. In his closing remark, then President of JBA Mr. Nakakoga announced that the industry would further reduce the import and limit its trading partners to only those which have sufficient management programme for the hawksbill turtle. For unknown reasons, American NGOs including the National Wildlife Federation asked the U.S. in 1991 to certify that Japan was undermining CITES Convention. In early 1991, the U.S. announced that it was considering a possibility of imposing economic sanction under Pelly Amendment against Japan. Many American NGOs started working with the US Government. For example, CMC issued a press release condemning Japan (Kaneko, 1992). Amongst others, CMC mentioned explicitly that many American NGOs believed that it would be inappropriate to hold the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Japan in 1992 unless Japan withdrew its reservation. Even CMC said that many NGOs had asked the U.S. to change the venue of the Conference of the Parties from Japan to other country.

Bilateral negotiation started in 1991 between the U.S. and Japan. Under the threat of Pelly Amendment, Japan decided to ban the importation of bekko effective the end of 1992 and withdrew its reservation in 1994. This was announced by Japan at the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Kyoto, 1992).