Gibson Guitar raids may benefit competitor

Forests cover more than 30 million of Oregon’s 63 million-acre land base, or about 48 percent of the state’s total landmass. The federal government owns about 60 percent of that total, with another 5 percent in other public or tribal ownership. Oregon is also defined as a forced unionism state by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Many forest industry job sectors such as loggers are unionized. (Photo, US Forest Service)Armed federal agents raided Gibson Guitar on Aug. 24 because of amendments to an act most Americans probably didn’t know existed. The Lacey Act, passed in 1900, set regulations for certain wildlife species. In 2008 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced amendments to beef up the act with wood products in mind.

The Gibson raid, actually the second time Gibson was targeted, raises a number of questions about trade protectionism, enforcement of laws that will do little to offset deforestation, and political cronyism. It also appears Wyden inflated the problem of illegal logging in the world timber industry.

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Gibson raids: Is Justice Dept. going after right-to-work states?

Add Gibson Guitar to companies under attack from the US Justice Dept. headed by Eric Holder. Gibson is located in Tennessee, a right-to-work state.

Democrats appear intent on killing jobs and decreasing US productivity despite an economy on the brink and record unemployment.

Gibson isn't the only company under attack.

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Gibson Guitar raid penalizes American company for foreign forestry practices

Commentary by Kay B. Day

The SG Standard, said Gibson, is the best-selling Gibson of all time.[Photo from Gibson website.]The Gibson brand needs no introduction to anyone who’s ever played a guitar, and the factory in Nashville is a valuable employer providing jobs to approximately 2,800 Americans. But armed with an expansion of the Lacey Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided the plant on Tuesday.

At stake: “wood procurement,” said a statement from Gibson. The Tennessean (Nashville) theorized about the raid’s link to exotic hardwoods: “But some exotic hardwoods traditionally used in making premium guitars, such as rosewood from the rain forests of Madagascar and Brazil, have been banned from commercial trade because of environmental concerns under a recently revised federal law.”

In 2008 Congress expanded the Lacey Act. Here’s an example of the depth of that expansion. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 'Facts about the Amended Lacey Act,' “As of May 22, 2008, if a tree is illegally harvested, made into wood products, and then exported to the United States, anyone who imported, exported, transported, sold, received, acquired, or purchased the wood products made from that illegal timber, who knew or should have known that the wood was illegal, may be prosecuted for violation of the Lacey Act.”

Few would dispute the value of wise forestry practices. But few would agree the language is sound in the provision cited. The very phrase “who knew or SHOULD have known…” permits subjectivity in the application of federal law. In addition the law as applied in the Gibson raid appears to target American companies rather than the source of the product or the wholesale distributor of the product.

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