A week ago armed federal agents under the direction of the Justice Department raided a US corporation (120 years old) Gibson Guitars and seized wood used in the manufacture of instruments with the assertion that it was imported illegally. This is the second such raid, costing Gibson untold millions in down time costs not to mention the inevitable lost jobs.
In the first raid almost two years ago, agents armed with automatic weapons seized Madagascar ebony fingerboards. No charges were laid, and event the government of Madagascar provided documents and assertions that the wood was harvested properly, was not pirated and they were happy to sell it to Gibson. Apparently the Madagascar gov't understands how this jobs thing is supposed to work.
The wood seized this week came from Indian and was sourced legally. The supplier is certified with the Forest Stewardship Council (a blessing to ethically harvest and woods of all type) The gov't of India has endorsed its export. The Lacey Act requires that users (like Gibson!) of rare resources like speciality woods ensure that the harvesting and purchase/sale of the wood was done without convening local laws in the export country. This law was designed to stop the illegal harvest of rare woods and other plant-like items by pirates who circumvent the gov't of the exporting country and poach the wood.
So why have the Feds gone after Gibson? Did Gibson purchase wood from poachers? Are the Indians upset that Gibson had violated some local law?
Nope.
What the justice department is contending is that the INDIAN GOV'T IS NOT ENFORCING IT'S OWN LAWS STRINGENTLY ENOUGH! They feds are reading INDIAN LAW and saying that they will enforce it in this country to higher standard than India would. In essence - the Feds are subjecting Gibson not to US laws, but to the laws of a country on the other side of the world. It is not enough that Gibson adhere to the requirements of the Lacey Act and the FSC, but to local laws they cannot and should not have to contend with.
The obcure Indian regulation that the Feds are insisting on enforcing refers to the fact that Indian law says that the wood must be "finished" in India. India say this "finishing" is that the wood be cut into usable pieces for the purpose intended such as guitar fingerboards or pen blanks or whatever. Because the craftmen and women at Gibson sand and shape the wood for final installation - the US gov't is contending that the "finishing" happens here in contravention of Indian law - despite the assertion by the Indian gov't that they have NO ISSUE with Gibson's use of the wood and India is satisfied that "finishing" according to their definition has taken place in India. The government of the US is saying that US workers should not have jobs "finishing" wood.
So Martin Guitars in PA uses the same kind of wood from the same countries and has no raid, no gov't sanctions. Now I know that you might think that the fact that since the CEO of Martin is a big Obama supporter and that the CEO of Gibson is a long time and visible Republican that there is just an outside chance that some pressure was exerted. I roundly dismiss that notion - as I reject the notion that since Obama will be a one term President that the greens and union raiders are getting what they can now before the pillaging of Real America is over. That would be disrespectful of the Presidency, and of the glorious history of Chicago style politics. There has been no cases that I can point to of unions and the Democratic party influencing the LOSS of American jobs. I mean, other than that Boeing thing. That doesn't count. Or that GE thing with the gov't of China, that was an anomaly.......
Hey - you got a nice factory here, we sure wouldn't want anything to happen to it........
seal team 6
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