Gibson Guitars And The Lacey Act Misused

I don't know Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz personally but I know others who run guitar companies large and small and I know guitars are not like most businesses; you can't be an MBA and just walk in there, and you can't be the head of a dishwasher company and get hired from outside to run a guitar company.  You have to know guitars to run a guitar company and that means caring about them - and thus being a fanatic about wood (see Guns, Guitars and Greenpeace for efforts by guitar makers to be part of the environmental solution to sustainable wood). In 2009, after the latest Lacey Act amendment, and with a new administration in power, federal agents raided the Gibson company offices over wood from Madagascar - Madagascar had a coup so is it now a 'legal' government or not?  No one can say but suddenly the wood was suspect, according to the Fish&Wildlife Commission.  The company filed a lawsuit in protest and then a few weeks ago they were raided again, this time over wood from India. The dispute is over Indian Ebony, all completely documented and legal except for this interpretation business. The Indian government "prohibits the export of sawn wood" but does not prohibit the export of veneers, sheets of woods that have already been worked on. The Feds say the wood was falsely declared as veneers because some assembly is still done in the U.S rather than India. Worse, says Juszkiewicz, the government told him if he would just have all of the work outsourced to India, the problem would go away. Yes, we've had the worst employment month since World War II and someone in the government that created this mess is telling an American company to outsource more jobs. Gibson has been importing the wood for decades with no issue, it is only the latest wrinkle and someone in the Justice Department now interpreting Indian law - it's clearly in the legal framework of the Lacey Act but, as I said, the legal framework sometimes needs to allow for common sense. What should never happen is the American government hinting to an American company they should outsource more jobs to meet an obscure part of an American regulation the company helped lobby to put in place to insure ethical resources...

Hank Cambell also asks this question:

Why has the Environmental Investigation Agency, a militant group funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, been lobbying the Justice Department so hard to go after Gibson?

He then finishes his column with:

And this new interpretation means I can't take an old guitar with me on an international trip, because when I come back, I won't be able to document where every piece of wood came from - no one can, on any old guitar.   Under the Lacey Act and its interpretation by the Obama administration, they can just take my heirloom.  It also means a staunch ally of responsible environmental practices, guitar makers, now have to start looking for ways to tear down the Lacey Act - or move their companies overseas.

And NPR reports:

Attorney Ronald Bienstock says the Gibson raids have aroused the guitar builders he represents because the Lacey Act is retroactive. He says they're worried they might be forced to prove the provenance of wood they acquired decades ago. "There hasn't been that moment where people have quote tested the case. 'What is compliance? What is actual compliance? How have I complied?' We're lacking that." He's even warned clients to be wary of traveling abroad with old guitars, because the law says owners can be asked to account for every wooden part of their guitars when re-entering the U.S. The law also covers the trade in vintage instruments. Nashville's George Gruhn is one of the world's top dealers of old guitars, banjos and other rare stringed instruments. "It's a nightmare," he says. "I can't help it if they used Brazilian rosewood on almost every guitar made prior to 1970. I'm not contributing to cutting down Brazilian rosewood today." Gruhn acknowledges that the government has tried to create exemptions to cover vintage instruments. But he says they are rife with delays and to play it safe he's nearly eliminated the 40% of his business that used to deal with overseas buyers...

What a mess, all brought to you by "feel-good" Republicans and environmental zealots.