I know there must be some Les Paul afficionado's here. Well, I hope you're happy with the one you have and don't ever plan to travel with it (more on that below). On Wednesday, federal officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided two Gibson guitar manufacturing facilities in Tennessee and confiscated all of the Indian Rosewood, the wood used on the "fingerboard", as well as computer files. The issue is apparently about whether Gibson is violating an Indian law that requires that wood products be "finished" by Indian workers before being shipped out of the country.
Gibson Guitar Corp's chief executive said on Thursday he would fight a federal investigation of the legendary guitar maker's wood imports after agents raided the company for the second time in two years.
Federal agents raided Gibson facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday, seizing wood imported from India, and workers were sent home.
In an affidavit, authorities indicated they are weighing charges against the company or its executives for illegally importing wood under a U.S. law barring importation of endangered plants and woods. The company has sued to recover its property.
http://www.reuters.com/...
Other Gibson factories are worried they may be next. This from Bozeman, Montana:
Bozeman factory manager, Dennis O'Brien, says all the wood is legal.
"Here is a plank of Indian Rosewood. It's been cut the rough dimension in India, which is a requirement of their export rules. It was approved by the export officials in India for export, it was accepted by U.S. Customs for import. We have all the documentation of these facts for every lot of wood we use here in Bozeman and everywhere in the company," says O'Brien.
O'Brien also tells us the Department of Justice says their Bozeman plant received one of the lots the DOJ is investigating. However, he says he doesn't understand what crime they have committed. He says Gibson only uses Forest Stewardship Council certified wood and that the company has been a leader when it comes to the responsible use of wood.
http://www.nbcmontana.com/...
As of this writing the Gibson guitar factories in question remain closed, putting hundreds of people out of work. And it may not just be factory workers facing trouble. Under recent revisions to the century-old Lacey Act, owners of vintage musical instruments who cannot prove the provenance of the ebony and ivory in their guitars and pianos are liable seizures, fines and even prison:
If you are the lucky owner of a 1920s Martin guitar, it may well be made, in part, of Brazilian rosewood. Cross an international border with an instrument made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent—not to mention face fines and prosecution.
. . .
The tangled intersection of international laws is enforced through a thicket of paperwork. Recent revisions to 1900's Lacey Act require that anyone crossing the U.S. border declare every bit of flora or fauna being brought into the country. One is under "strict liability" to fill out the paperwork—and without any mistakes.
It's not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce and maple: What's the bridge made of? If it's ebony, do you have the paperwork to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and where it was made into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar's headstock bone, or could it be ivory? "Even if you have no knowledge—despite Herculean efforts to obtain it—that some piece of your guitar, no matter how small, was obtained illegally, you lose your guitar forever," Prof. Thomas has written. "Oh, and you'll be fined $250 for that false (or missing) information in your Lacey Act Import Declaration."
http://online.wsj.com/...
I don't know exactly what else Gibson could have done to avoid this. Apparently, they have all of the correct permits required by the Indian government, and those permits were presented and accepted by the U.S. Customs Service when the wood was imported. They have the stamp of approval of the Forest Stewardship Council. They're actually manufacturing a high-value, world-famous product in the United States, providing jobs to U.S. workers. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing here, but I don't know what.