WASHINGTON: The head of Gibson Guitar said Wednesday he favors tougher US laws to combat illegal logging, under three months after federal agents seized rare Indian ebony from its factories.
Writing on the Huffington Post website, Henry Juszkiewicz said he would be pressing Congress and the Barack Obama administration to clarify legislation that prohibits importing illegally harvested timber.
"Rather than repealing the Lacey Act, we should make it stronger so that limited government enforcement dollars can be devoted to fighting illegal logging and poaching, not bureaucratic fights over international tariff codes," he said.
Gibson, makers of the legendary Les Paul guitar, became a cause celebre for Tea Party activists after US wildlife agents raided two of its plants in Tennessee on August 24 and took away several pallets of Indian ebony.
No charges have been laid, but Juszkiewicz alleged that Gibson had been unfairly targeted, while globe-traveling guitarists feared their instruments might be seized at customs due to the exotic wood used to make them.
In one interview with CNN, Juszkiewicz went so far as to suggest that First Lady Michelle Obama may have broken the law when she took a Gibson guitar out of the United States to present to her French counterpart Carla Bruni.
In his article on Tuesday, he said the US government is alleging that the seized ebony was imported in violation of an Indian law intended to keep wood finishing work in India -- and not because it had been illegally harvested.
"To make matters worse, although the Indian government certified that the wood was properly and legally exported under this law, the US Fish and Wildlife Service substituted its own opinion and reinterpreted Indian law," he added.
"Its analysis suggested that if Gibson would just finish its fingerboards using Indian labor rather than Tennessee craftsman, there would be no issue."
Juszkiewicz proposed the establishment of a "country certification system" in which manufacturers would pay a premium for wood from countries that comply with international standards to fight illegal logging.
Last month, more than 500 people turned out for Tea Party rally in Nashville in support of Gibson, which builds its premium guitars in the United States but operates plants in Asia for its more popular brands.
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