You may have heard of the troubles experienced by the Gibson guitar
company. Their supply of rosewood fingerboards was confiscated and they
were fined for violations of the Lacey Act as amended in 2008. Those
rosewood fingerboard blanks were legally exported from India but the
U.S. has ruled that importing them was illegal. The National Association
of Music Merchants is entering the fray.
The U.S. supplier was Luthiers Mecantile International, who
inadvertently clouded the issue by supplying Gibson's materials under an
incorrect tariff code. It was one digit off. The distinction between the
correct code and the incorrect one was whether the wood was over or
under 6 mm in thickness.
Short punchline to a long story: Apparently at least some of the wood
purchased to make guitars in the U.S. is measured for tariff purposes in
metric units.
Refrain: U.S. luthiers (guitar makers, et al.) are singing the blues.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
