Made in USA
U.S.-made goods that must bear an origin label include automobiles, textiles, wool, and fur products.
Any voluntary claims about the amount of U.S. content in other products must comply with the FTC's Made in USA policy.
In identifying implied claims, the Commission focuses on the overall impression of the advertising, label, or promotional material.
[1] In May 1997, the FTC published its proposal that the requirement be stated as:[2] It will not be considered a deceptive practice for a marketer to make an unqualified U.S. origin claim if, at the time it makes the claim, the marketer possesses and relies upon competent and reliable evidence that: (1) U.S. manufacturing costs constitute 75% of the manufacturing costs for the product; and (2) the product was last substantially transformed in the United States.However, this was just a proposal and never became part of the final guidelines published in the Federal Register in 1997.
[citation needed] Country of origin labels are required on textiles, wools, furs, automobiles, most foods, and many other imports.
Until it shut down brick and mortar stores in 2017, American Apparel, which had been producing in Los Angeles since 1989, was the largest garment manufacturer in North America.
The company's CEO was committed to social responsibility, and offered factory workers careers with benefits and pay significantly higher than that of their overseas counterparts.
[13][10] After worker protests and bribery investigations, Walmart, the largest grocery store in the world, has pledged to source $50 billion in products from the US over the next ten years.
In the late 2000s decade, they started to mix oranges from Brazil, and Florida's Natural saw this as an opportunity to place "Made in the USA" on their cartons.
The trend towards overseas factories has resulted in complications for companies of all sizes, ranging from quality to timeline issues.
As currency appreciates and wages rise, people are moving to low-cost areas in south-east Asia, and also coming back to the US.
The general manager of a Haier plant in Camden, South Carolina Bernie Tymkiw has been quoted saying, “We just don't have the brainstorming ability because of language.”[20] The cultural disconnect can prove to be a significant barrier with global companies.
High-end designers like being very close to their factories, as they have full control of the product quality that is leaving the assembly line.
An online article about the luxury apparel maker company Everlane led to over 2,000 shirts sales in a single day.
[23] The minimum requirement is that the final assembly or processing of the product must take place within the United States.
The Northern Mariana Islands is another U.S. territory in the Pacific that was exempted from certain U.S. wage and immigration laws until 2007, where the use of the "Made in USA" label was likewise controversial.
The label is controversial also since all U.S. insular areas, except Puerto Rico, operate under a customs territory separate from the U.S., making their products technically imports when sold in the United States proper.
