That is the main issue with imports, take a look at some of the guys selling Tarantulas over seas, they say it is wild caught it is practiced and does happen over there and there hobby is bigger than ours, and now if they open the gates for imports we will get wild caught tarantulas and people will do it for the money and not for the best of the hobby.
It happened here in South Africa, where guys exported wild caught baboon spiders over seas, so the history is there!

Also one con that will be an issue, If Natcon decides to stop the tarantulas hobby there will be more spider for them to sort out, or try get out of the system!?

But I'm on the fence on this one, If Natcon give us permits to keep locals then I would just keep local and get rid of my tarantulas!

So if we managed to only import captive bred Ts, which is possible, because by only allowing us to import slings, chances are that they are captive bred, and if we were responsible enough not to set our Ts free (which I agree is unlikely) what would the cons be?

Can I just add that every other exotic (I think?) is allowed to be imported, why is there such a big problem with tarantulas?

T-rad wrote: So if we managed to only import captive bred Ts, which is possible, because by only allowing us to import slings, chances are that they are captive bred, and if we were responsible enough not to set our Ts free (which I agree is unlikely) what would the cons be?

Not too many that I can think of.
But i would like to see you prove that they are captive bred and not from wild caught gravid females.
And if you look at the posts where people are catching tarantulas (OBT that snakekid found, 1000 L.parahybanas that escaped from Stalker) there is no way that we could ever guarantee that there will not be escapes.
From NatCon's view they can only lose by making it easier to import tarantulas.

T-rad wrote: Can I just add that every other exotic (I think?) is allowed to be imported, why is there such a big problem with tarantulas?

I'm not sure on the laws for other exotics, but I know that NatCon is working on outlawing Burmese pythons and Beardies. Yes, I know it will be almost impossible, but more and more of these 2 species are being found in the wild in SA.
Our exotic pet hobby has very little morals or regard for local species.

But what if we were only allowed to import slings? I'm sure that can be monitored. I guess there will always be tarantulas or any exotic animal escaping, not much we can do there, and it is a big problem. Cascade by you saying you will only keep locals, you will be taking them out of the wild, which you initially had a problem with. If everyone suddenly gets permits there will be huge want for local species and we wont get them by breeding we will get them by taking a vast amount out of the wild.