Thanks for posting this, Chuck, but yeah, bad title. The fellow in the video is Rand Paul, not Ron.
To me, the Rand Paul proposal and Gibson's promotion of it will gut the Lacey Act entirely, and I imagine that is what they're really after. Frankly, it makes me sick.
No doubt the law is poorly and often unfairly applied. That is beyond debate. That is what needs addressing.
However, to take the foreign law requirement out of the Lacey Act simply opens the door to bribery of foreign customs officials to get illegally cut woods out of their own countries. Except for Lacey, we don't restrict any foreign woods in the US (they don't grow here, do they?), so it goes back to open season on all wood imports - the advantage going to those companies who are willing and able to pay off foreign customs officials to violate their own laws.
I suppose you could say that this is not the problem of the United States. I can tell you first hand, however, that we have a lot more respect around the world as a result of this stand. Poor countries, rich in natural resources, are easy prey for large foreign corporations. The fact is, that as a result of Lacey, we are seen as standing with these governments in their efforts to protect their own resources, instead of de facto encouraging our corporations to violate them. It puts us in the vanguard of a true "nation of laws" instead of the prime representative of "law as servant to the highest bidder".
I've been in the lumber export business in Central America, and seen this sort of thing first hand. I got out of it because of the prevalence of this practice of bribery and falsification of export documents. Based on what has happened with Gibson, I can almost guarantee that this is their standard way of doing business.
In my opinion, the CEO of Gibson has more interest in politics, and specifically in politics as the means to line his pockets, than he does in guitars. He is a serial offender when it comes to compliance with these laws. Don't think for one minute he doesn't know what he's doing. I personally hope the fellow ends up in jail.
