Posted on 10/05/2011 11:39:47 PM PDT by Gene Eric
It's as sweet a sound as you can imagine. A $10,000 guitar expertly crafted by the hands of Dave Berkowitz, a master luthier in Washington, D.C.
But Berkowitz's guitars include fretboards and bridges made from Indian rosewood and ebony, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service declared to be illegal to import in its actions against Gibson Guitar back in August. Now, every time Berkowitz uses that wood to build his immaculate instruments, he is potentially breaking the law.
"I use the exact same ebony and rosewood fingerboards that were confiscated in August from Gibson," Berkowitz told Fox News.
Does that mean he is "engaging in illegal business practices?"
"Well, technically speaking, yes, because they have declared the materials I'm using illegal," he said.
But whether the Indian rosewood and ebony that Berkowitz and Gibson -- and so many other guitar makers -- use is really illegal depends on who is asked.
According to the Indian government, fingerboard "blanks" -- the wood that will eventually become a guitar's fretboard -- are legal to export.
*** snip ***
What's really at stake, Berkowitz said, is history.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Gibson ping.
Twaaannggggg
Beautiful.
Symbol of the Tea Party. We need a poster of Ted Nugent in concert with his signature Gibson Byrdland guitar.
“She added that she has heard plenty of anxiety across the country from musical instrument craftsmen and furniture makers, who all feel at risk now that Gibson was raided by armed federal agents.”
I’m sure a few well-placed contributions to Zero would fix this problem right away. And, might even get them federal stimulus money.
I only ask because my daughter's oboe, made of imported grenadilla, a wood considered “scarce” on some import list too? American makers also make oboes from violet wood and rosewood. Should they be worried?
With the selective enforcement of purposely poorly worded and overly vague "laws", EVERYONE should be worried.
"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
Ayn Rand
“I think there is almost universal agreement among the tea party and conservative groups that the raids … was an overreach by the federal government."
So if the Indians say they are legal to export, how can the feds decide otherwise????
I hope Gibson fights them in court and wins a judgement so large it will shut these sobees up.
You've hit the nail on the head! The scum in DC want to be continually passing bills that chip away at our freedoms and the right to make our own decisions, partly because if they don't the liberal media calls them "do nothing" and they have nothing to crow about in the next campaign. They need to learn to LEAVE US THE **** ALONE!
FUBO GTFO! 472 Days until Noon Jan 20, 2013
However, articles like these are short and sometimes can be misleading with the facts they leave out.
To me the article suggests that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service simply decided that fretboard blanks should be considered raw materials, not finished product. However, The USFWS is following US customs law which has been in effect since 1993 that fingerboard blanks are raw materials, not finished products, that should be classified as 4407 (unfinished) items and not 9902 (finished). In fact, Gibson had imported fingerboard blanks eleven times as 4407 (unfinished) items in the thirteen months preceding this raid and confiscation. When Gibson imported Madagascar ebony fretboard blanks in 2009 (the other raid), it used 4407 as the classification. So Gibson calls them an unfinished product.
Fish and Wildlife didn't make up the "fretboard are unfinished items" on the spur of the moment.
Second, the article says:
What's more, according to the complaint, the Gibson wood was imported with an incorrect tariff code, which was off by one digit from the correct code.
That's technically true.
But the export papers for the fretboard blanks from India permitted export as 9902 (finished items for musical instruments). Somebody at Luthier Mercantile changed the classification to 4408 and the description to "Veneer Wood <6MM Thick" on the customs paperwork." From 9902 to 4408 is more than one digit, and you must take the time to completely write a new description. Plus, by changing from 9902 to 4408, you avoid paying the tariff on a finished product.
Even after the product was confiscated and LMI submitted revised customs paperwork, LMI has not said that the correct code was 4407 and it was one digit off. LMI's revised paperwork says that the correct code was 9902.
The article also does not mention the use of false final consignees on two shipments - one through Dallas, one through Canada, where Gibson's name doesn't appear on the customs paperwork. In the case of the shipment from Canada, the Red Arrow Delivery Service warehouse in Nashville shared an email from LMI with Fish and Wildlife in which LMI said to ignore to customs paperwork - and that Gibson was actually the final consignee.
A lot of the details are in the Affidavit to support the search warrant. Other details are in the pleadings from the civil forfeiture case, U.S. v. 25 Bundles of Indian Ebony Wood, Case No. 3:11cv 00913 (U.S. Dist. Ct., Mid. Dist. Tenn.). The way this wood was imported was strange. That doesn't mean it was illegal (well, the mislabeling was illegal under the Lacey Act, but that would have to be intentional, and I'm not counting that), it jut means it was strange.
I expect this forfeiture case to be stayed within the next week on the grounds that it will "adversely affect the investigation and prosecution of an ongoing criminal investigation." The other civil forfeiture case has been stayed on those grounds after reviewing sealed evidence from the Environmental Crimes Section of the United States Department of Justice. On October 4, the U.S. Attorney in Nashville also asked the U.S. District Court Judge in this case to do the same thing, and he reviewed sealed evidence from the same source. He's the same Judge, so I expect the same result.
India says finished items are legal to export; unfinished items are illegal to export.
Back in 1993, some members of the guitar industry wanted the United States International Trade Commission to rule that fretboard blanks were unfinished (HTS 4407) items (split, chipped, or cut unfinished wood) rather than a finished part for a musical instrument (HTS 9902). There was no 5.7% tariff on 4407 items; there was a 5.7% tariff on 9902 items.
They got their wish.
Even earlier, in 1990, Gibson has pushed to have acoustic guitar bodies and necks declared unfinished items. It was having them made in Japan and shipped to its Bozeman, Montana factory to sell in its Blueridge line. There, Gibson was gluing the necks to the bodies, drilling holes for the strings, sanding and finishing the guitars, and attaching the tuners. Gibson was labeling the guitars "Made in the U.S.A." A court told them to label the guitars "Made in Japan." Gibson sought United States International Trade Commission review, wanting the necks and bodies to be declared unfinished items. The customs ruling disagreed with Gibson.
So, let's say that the U.S. says that lumber is lumber and furniture is a finished item. Let's say the Indian government says it's illegal to export lumber, but allows the export of a load of 2'x4' and says its legal because the lumber is furniture. Here, the government said: what you're importing is lumber, because customs rulings have said that 2'x4's are lumber since at least 1993.
That, and LMI changed the import code from 'furniture' to an unfinished material when they imported it for Gibson.
That said, I think this confiscation was more about the mislabeling and the use of a proxy consignee than the HTS coding. And, unless the feds discovering a lot of smoking gun emails in Gibson's computers, as they did with the 2009 raid, it reads as if LMI and Theodor Nagel GmbH are to blame, not Gibson.
Only in America can the Fish and Wildlife Bureau put a guitar maker out of business. Is this an example of Government Overreach or what? There are other brands of guitars and other brands of governments.
I wouldn't worry about that. Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz isn't a Republican.
The first report by Fox News Correspondent John Roberts said that Juszkiewicz "has contributed to Republican candidates as well as some Democratic candidates."
And that was true. Juszkiewicz has rarely donated to political candidates. He donates to primarily to the Consumer Electronics Association, which contributes to both parties.
His last contribution to a candidate was to Democrat Congressman Cooper (TN).
Despite what Roberts had first reported and despite the facts from opensecrets.org, during his appearance on Fox News' America Newsroom that same day, Roberts said only that Juszkiewicz "has donated heavily to Republican candidates." Do you see a record of "heavy" donations to Republican candidates in the opensecrets.org records?
In three other live reports that day, Roberts forwarded the allegation that Gibson was targeted because Juszkiewicz "donated to Republican candidates," without mentioning that he has also supported a Democrat, or the contributions to just two Republicans.
Juszkiewicz has never donated to the Republican party.
I'm willing to accept other reasons for the raid, but not that Juszkiewicz is a Republican. His controls Gibson as one of the two owners. Gibson is an early member of the Clinton Global Initiative. When Bill Clinton was President and the Lincoln Bedroom and every coat closet had a price tag on it, Gibson rented the entire White House for a 100th Anniversary concert. Juszkiewicz was a presented at MTV's Rock the Vote Awards . . . coincidentally the year that Bill Clinton won the "Lifetime Achievement Award" and Barack Obama was honored. Political contribution reports for Clinton's campaign from Juszkiewicz are not available online.
The Rainforest Alliance, a group that Juszkiewicz helped form (and on which he sat on the board until stepping down after Gibson was accused of illegally importing Madagascar ebony) still battles against manmade global warming.
Juszkiewicz is on the Board of the We Are Family foundation, whose sole goal is diversity and tolerance - promoting the United Nations Day of Tolerance, and sponsoring Mattie's Poetry Jam for poets whose poetry promotes diversity and tolerance.
Somebody grabbed the "Republican" title and ran with it. Juszkiewicz's not a Republican.
There are plenty of other possible reasons for the raid, but Juszkiewicz being a Republican is not one of them.
I only know what the article said and it said that India said they were finished.
Despite all the arcana to the contrary, and I have no doubt all you said is true, its a pretty sorry intrusion into business that should never be.What I am intuiting is that the guitar industry sought a ruling to avoid a more onerous set of rules.
I just shake my head over stuff like this...too dumb to understand it but it still doesn’t sound right.
Adder, you can read the affidavit and you can read Gibson's comments. These were simply rough cut blanks of wood in two approximate different sizes. They're not even as finished as the wood you buy in a Home Depot - and I don't call that a finished part of a musical instrument.
But I think the government's position in this raid is unsustainable in the long run.
I have to run to a meeting.
It shows three ebony guitar fingerboard products with these measurements:
1. 500 x 70/60 x 9.0 mm
2. 530 x 70/60 x 9.0 mm
3. 700 x 70/60 x 9.0 mm
The photo of the product is this:
You'll see that it has the slots already cut for frets. That, to me, is a finished product.
The product that was shipped to the USA with Luthier Mercantile as the importer was rough-cut blanks of ebony in the following dimensions, with no slots for frets:
1. 510-530 x 75/70 x 10mm
2. 510-530 x 72/62 x 10mm
Gibson admits that it was going to finish the surface and edges of the blanks to size. Gibson has outstanding technology called a Plek machine that cuts its grooves for frets on the fingerboards.
I've said that I don't think the government's position is workable. However, these were not finished products. Atheena sent rough cut blanks instead of its finished product and filled out export paperwork for a finished product.
The importer, LMI, took paperwork that identified these blanks coded as "9902" and described as 'finished parts for a musical instrument" under the Harmonized System established by the World Customs Organization, and changed the code to "4408" and the description to "VENEER SHEET <=6MM OTH, OT" on the import form. 4407 would have been "chipped, split, or cut wood >6MM" and would have been illegal to export from India.
LMI knew these were not finished parts for a musical instrument, or else why would they change the code from 9902 and go to the trouble of changing the description?
There's plenty to argue about regarding the raid - but these were not finished parts for a musical instrument.
And you'll note that nothing I said implicated Gibson in any way in changing codes, falsely describing the contents upon import, or falsely describing the contents upon export. Nor in putting the name of a false consignee on the papers.
But this was a shady import deal.
Thank you for the enlightenment. My original focus was the line in the article that said India said they were shipped legally.
To me, that should have been the end of the story. I see it is not, however.
The problem is that this entire thing is much too complicated to be explained in a soundbite or a 250-word article.
The fact that it's complicated doesn't mean the deal was illegal (although mislabeling is illegal under the Lacey Act) - but it does show things in a different light than simply saying "the wood was shipped legally and Fish and Wildlife says that it wasn't." Plus - Theodor Nagel GmbH was involved in this import transaction. Nagel was falsely identified as the consignee on this shipment (LMI had earlier paperwork indicating Gibson was the consignee, but submitted paperwork naming Nagel, then, when the shipment was stopped for lack of a Lacey Act declaration, the general manager of LMI, Natalie Swango, told the Fish and Wildlife Agents that Gibson was the consignee and provided a copy of the earlier, unfiled paperwork), and the owners of Nagel also own Luthier Mercantile.
Nagel was involved in the 2009 illegal importation of Madagascar ebony and is almost certainly a target of the criminal investigation that the Environmental Crimes section of the Department of Justice has underway.
On the wood that came through Canada, LMI named itself as the final consignee - but emailed the warehouse to ignore the customs paperwork and stated that Gibson was the final consignee.
Most of this is in the affidavit I linked; a few details are in the pleadings that have been filed in the civil forfeiture lawsuit.
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