Gibson CEO Envies Chinese Guitar Companies

Juszkiewicz claims costs are cheaper in China   21-Nov-11

Gibson CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, has spoken about the problems facing American businesses in an interview with Alister And Paine.

In ther interview, Juszkiewicz tackled the subject of the recent raids on Gibson headquarters, and stood by his position that the raids were unjust and ungrounded. He confirmed that his woods were checked and verified by a third party before being used for Gibson guitars.

He also spoke of how he defied a clear order from the government that no employee of the company should touch any guitar involved in the investigation:

"When the government raided our plant they said we couldn't touch any of the guitars in our factory in any state. Every guitar we touched could be considered a federal crime. Well, that shuts us down. I said we're going to keep manufacturing and I'm taking full responsibility. Then they wrote us another letter backing off their original position saying 'We didn't really mean that'."

The Gibson CEO used the interview to comment on the costs involved in running a business in the USA; claiming that companies from China get more help from their authorities:

"The federal government is still pursuing this investigation aggressively. It is wrong and it is government run amuck. It's the criminalisation of business. There are 300,000 criminal laws that businesses are subject to. Those criminal statues basically put power in non-elected officials. It's a huge burned in costs. My competitors in China, they don't have that cost. Their government is actually helping them. Go figure."

Despite the claim, Juszkiewicz says his words of protest are not politically motivated, and that he is just exercising his democratic right:

"Some people would say that I'm politicizing this issue. It politicized me. How do you react when the laws and government structure are not right? What do you do in a democracy when it's not right?"

You read more about the Gibson raids here.

Rich Beech
@sonicamped

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