Sears Avoids Class Action Over Made-in-USA Claim

March 29, 2012 by 1 Comment

By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN

CHICAGO (CN) – A federal judge declined to certify a class against Sears which alleged the department store falsely advertised its Craftsman line of tools as “Made in the U.S.A.” to charge higher prices.
In multidistrict litigation, plaintiffs claim that the department store Sears, Roebuck & Company deceptively advertised its line of Craftsman tools as manufactured in the U.S., when in fact many of the tools are foreign-made.
Of the seven cases involved in the multi-district litigation, four were voluntarily dismissed, one was remanded to California state court, and one settled after the court declined to certify a class.
In the last remaining case pending before the Northern District of Illinois, Jeffrey Greenfield claimed that he bought a Craftsman ratcheting screwdriver from a Florida Sears store in 2004. He said he recalled in-store signage that stated: “Craftsman Quality, Guaranteed for life, Made in the USA, only $19.95.”
In fact, Greenfield alleged that, in 2000, 20 percent of Craftsman products were not made in the U.S., a percentage that rose to 70 percent by 2005. “Sears chose not to make it known that such a high percentage of its tools were not made in the U.S.A., despite the actual knowledge that its customers believed Craftsman products were made in the U.S.A., because such a disclosure would force Sears to reduce the profit margin on its Craftsman line of products,” Greenfield’s complaint stated.

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Court orders FDA to restrict use of antibiotics in livestock

March 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times

The Food and Drug Administration must address the use of antibiotics in livestock, a federal judge in New York has ruled in a lawsuit, a signal that the FDA may soon ban the practice due to longstanding public health concerns.

The ruling favors a coalition of plaintiffs including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed suit last May in a bid to push the FDA to exert more control over agricultural use of penicillin and tetracycline, two popular antibiotics used in feed to protect chickens, pigs and cattle from disease and speed their growth.

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Made in USA (Again): Why Manufacturing Is Coming Home

March 26, 2012 by 2 Comments

Eric Markowitz | Inc.com staff

Mismanaged supply chain decisions sent manufacturing overseas. But the industry has changed direction.

Returning to America: Zentech Manufacturing, a contract manufacturer based in Baltimore, is seeing more and more companies return their manufacturing to America.

When Anton Bakker launched his company, Offsite Networks, in 1999, he had no intention of manufacturing overseas. But a few years later, when his company began taking on larger orders, he began looking for cheaper supply alternatives.

That’s when he went to China.

By the early 2000s, Chinese contract manufacturers had become increasingly equipped to handle the type of advanced manufacturing that Offsite was producing—point-of-sale hardware for store loyalty programs, like high-tech printers and scanners. So in 2004, the company, which is based in Norfolk, Virgnia, canceled contracts with domestic suppliers and moved 90 percent of its manufacturing to suppliers based in China, Malaysia, and Tokyo. For the most part, Bakker was satisfied.

“The scale drove us to look for more competitive, cost-effective products,” Bakker says. “I had a difficult time doing that domestically. We found that the products were just not competitive in terms of pricing, and we could find them at less than half the price overseas.”

That narrative—of outsourcing, offshoring, and finding cheaper suppliers overseas—is not a new story.

But then something unexpected happened. In 2011, Offsite Networks moved their manufacturing back to America, finding a domestic supplier, Zentech Manufacturing, based in Baltimore, to carry out the company’s orders.

So what changed?

Bakker tells me the company returned for a variety of reasons. It was becoming more affordable to manufacture locally, he says, and American technology had improved rapidly. This meant that labor costs, which had initially driven Bakker to find cheap work overseas, were a smaller percentage of total costs. Meanwhile, an increase in other costs—like shipping, for instance—had increased. In other words, it was cheaper to manufacture locally.

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Filed under China, COOL Country of origin labeling, Currency Manipulation, Insourcing, Labor, Made in USA, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Tagged with , , , , , , ,

U.S. to appeal WTO ruling against meat labels

March 25, 2012 by Leave a comment

Reuters
By Doug Palmer and Rod Nickel | Reuters

WASHINGTON/WINNIPEG (Reuters) – The United States said on Friday it would appeal a World Trade Organization ruling against a law requiring country-of-origin labels on all meat sold in grocery stores, a move that disappointed Canada and Mexico, both of which want the law changed.

The meat labels became mandatory in March 2009 after years of debate. U.S. consumer and mainline farm groups supported the requirement, saying consumers should have information to distinguish between U.S. and foreign products.

Big meat processors opposed the provision, which they said would unnecessarily boost costs and disrupt trade.

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Made in the USA: Ann Arbor firm constructing homes with products made in America

March 22, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

As Ann Arbor Builders Inc. hops aboard the slow train to economic recovery, the company wants to bring along other American businesses.

Homeowner Patrick Schutte (on left) stands with Alex de Parry of Ann Arbor Builders at the site of Schutte's new Dexter house, which is being constructed mostly of materials made in the U.S.

It’s been a tough four or five years, admitted Betsy de Parry, vice president of Ann Arbor Builders. The 40-year-old home construction company saw business drop from 20 to 30 new home starts a year to three or four since 2007.

But as the phone begins to ring again with inquiries and there is a growing number of signed contracts, de Parry said she and her husband, Alex de Parry, company president, are focusing on building homes with products made in America — with a special emphasis on products from Michigan and Washtenaw County companies.

At the same time, Patrick Schutte had a dream of building his own house from the ground up, getting it just the way he and his wife, Heather, wanted it. But Schutte wanted it to be American-made. That’s when he found Ann Arbor Builders.

The family’s four-bedroom Dexter house will be the first new project built under Ann Arbor Builders’ focus on using American-made goods. Except for the granite countertop, the microwave oven and the recessed lighting, everything will be made in America, down to the nails. Construction started in January, and the family expects to move in this summer.

The project won a few seconds of national attention this week when it appeared on an ABC network news segment about the economy heating up, adding 52,000 new construction jobs in the past two months, compared to 32,000 new jobs in all of 2011.

While the de Parrys had paid little attention to the sourcing of their home building products until a few month ago, it turned out many items already came from the U.S. Still, they knew they could do better.

After they learned from the Boston Consulting Group that 220,000 more new jobs would be created if every builder in the country increased American-made products by 5 percent, they decided to make the effort.

“If everyone did it, it would add up to be a pretty big thing,” Betsy de Parry said.

Alex de Parry, who also serves as vice president of the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor and was previously involved in the development of the controversial City Place project on South Fifth Avenue, created a comprehensive list of all the materials that went into building his houses and turned to his suppliers to find out where the materials were made.

“It was a team effort,” he said. “There was no resistance. Everyone knew it was about jobs.”

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Safeway to Stop Selling ‘Pink Slime’ Textured Beef

March 21, 2012 by Leave a comment

Safeway, America’s second largest supermarket chain, has announced it will no longer sell what the meat industry calls “lean finely textured beef” and the public has come to call “pink slime“.

Safeway says in a statement “considerable consumer concern” led to its decision even though the chain believes its beef with the controversial filler in it is safe

“Safeway is committed to providing our customers with the highest-quality products,” the company said in a statement. “While the USDA and food industry experts agree that lean finely textured beef is safe and wholesome, recent news stories have caused considerable consumer concern about this product.  Safeway will no longer purchase ground beef containing lean finely textured beef.”

Makers of “lean finely textured beef” and the USDA  say that it is not an additive and need not be labeled, and is safe to eat. But critics, including former USDA scientists, contend the ammonia treated “pink slime” – made from low quality scraps once used for dog food and cooking oil – is less nutritious than pure ground beef.

“It’s not fresh ground beef. It’s a cheap substitute being added in,” microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein said.

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US govt sets new tariffs on China solar panels

March 21, 2012 by Leave a comment

The low cost of labor, coupled with the massive scale of production at its 14,000-person plant, have enabled China's Suntech to become the global industry leader in solar power in just a decade

MARCY GORDON | AP Business Writer - WASHINGTON

The Commerce Department is imposing new import fees on solar panels made in China, finding that the Chinese government is improperly giving subsidies to manufacturers of the panels there.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday it has found on a preliminary basis that Chinese solar panel makers have received government subsidies of 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent. Therefore, the department said, tariffs in the same proportions will be charged on Chinese panels imported into the U.S., depending on which company makes them.

The tariff amounts are considered small, but the decision could ratchet up trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Several U.S. solar panel makers had asked the government to impose steep tariffs on Chinese imports. They are struggling against stiff competition from China as well as weakening demand in Europe and other key markets, just as President Barack Obama is working to promote renewable energy.

“Today’s announcement affirms what U.S. manufacturers have long known: Chinese manufacturers have received unfair … subsidies,” Steve Ostrenga, CEO of Helios Solar Works in Milwaukee, said in a statement. The company is a member of a group called the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing.

On the other side, some U.S. companies argue that low-priced Chinese imports have helped consumers and promote rapid growth of the industry.

The new tariffs are low, making the Commerce Department decision “a relatively positive outcome for the U.S. solar industry and its 100,000 employees,” said Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy. “However, tariffs large or small will hurt American jobs and prolong our world’s reliance on fossil fuels. Fortunately, this decision will not significantly raise solar prices in the United States.”

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Chinese copycats challenge U.S. small businesses

March 19, 2012 by 1 Comment

HONG KONG – SylvanSport founder Thomas Dempsey learned last summer that a product similar to one he’d patented was being made in China when a customer sent him a link to a Chinese company’s website.

On the website, Dempsey found a recreational camper trailer that looked eerily like the one he designed and patented and sells through his 8-year-old Brevard, N.C., company.

“We were shocked,” says Dempsey. “We thought at first that what we saw was our product, but as we looked at some of the video and photography, we realized that this is tooled up from scratch.”

It was the beginning of what would be a nightmare for any small-business owner. Since then, distributors inSouth Korea and Japan have opted to market the Chinese company’s product instead of Dempsey’s. A Japanese distributor mistakenly thought it was buying products from SylvanSport’s Chinese factory, says Dempsey. Confused consumers have also e-mailed SylvanSport, asking about its affiliation with the Chinese product, owned by Wuyi Tiandi Motion Apparatus, a maker of dirt bikes and camping gear in Jinhua City in eastern China.

These problems have left the promising U.S. upstart, whose camper trailers retail for about $8,000, in a precarious position. While SylvanSport expects a “break-even” year, with sales around $3 million — more than double 2011′s — business could suffer in coming years if distributors keep fleeing to the Chinese competitor, Dempsey says.

In 2011, SylvanSport got about 15% of its sales from outside the U.S. and about half of that from South Korea, Japan and Australia. Dempsey expects 30% of 2012 sales will be international.

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Imported-Food Outbreaks Rise, CDC Says

March 15, 2012 by Leave a comment

By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN | WSJ

 

Outbreaks of illness linked to imported food have risen since the late 1990s, casting a spotlight on federal inspection standards for fish, produce and other foods brought in from abroad.

The 39 outbreaks from imported food reported between 2005 and 2010 represent a small fraction of total cases of food-borne illnesses such as salmonella or E. coli, according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented Wednesday. But the rise in imported-food outbreaks—mostly from fish and spices—highlights gaps in the food-safety system that a sweeping new law is intended to address.

CDC researchers found 6.5 outbreaks from foreign foods a year, on average, between 2005 and 2010—more than double the average of 2.7 outbreaks annually between 1998 and 2004.

Of the 39 outbreaks between 2005 and 2010, nearly half—17—occurred in 2009 and 2010.

The foods, including fish, oysters, cheese, sprouts and seven other types of products, were shipped from 15 countries. Nearly 45% of those foods originated from Asia. Most people were sickened with salmonella or histamine fish poisoning, a bacterial disease contracted from eating spoiled dark-flesh fish that causes rashes, diarrhea, sweating, headaches and vomiting. The outbreaks led to 2,348 cases of illness, the CDC said.

Among the largest of those outbreaks was one in 2008 linked to jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico contaminated with salmonella. More than 1,400 people were sickened and more than 280 were hospitalized with salmonella in 43 states.

Other major outbreaks reviewed in the study were a 2007 recall of Veggie Booty, a puffed rice snack that was found to contain contaminated raw materials from China that led to 52 cases of salmonella in 17 states, and a 2010 outbreak of typhoid fever tied to frozen fruit pulp that originated in Guatemala.

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ITC Votes to Revoke OJ Anti-Dumping Order

March 15, 2012 by 1 Comment


FLORIDA CITRUS MUTUAL
P.O. Box89 • Lakeland,FL 33802
ph:(863) 682-1111   www.flcitrusmutual.com


LAKELAND, Fla. (March 14, 2012) – The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Wednesday struck a blow toFlorida citrus growers by voting to revoke the anti-dumping order on certain Brazilian orange juice processors.

The ITC said removing the anti-dumping order would not materially harm the Florida citrus grower despite increased Brazilian production, declining U.S. consumption and rapidly escalating costs of production.

An anti-dumping order covering three major Brazilian orange juice processors – Cutrale Citrus Juice, Citrosuco Paulista and Louis Dreyfus – has been in place since 2006. Every five years, the United States conducts a “sunset review” to determine whether duties should remain in place on Brazilian OJ or be revoked, taking into consideration how that would impact the U.S. industry, including Florida growers.

The decision came after Florida Citrus Mutual (FCM) spent the past six months building a case against the Brazilians.

“Florida Citrus Mutual is extremely disappojnted with this decision and we will review next steps including an appeal,” said Michael W. Sparks, FCM’s executive VP/CEO. “Over the past five years Brazilian processors have continued to dump cheap product into the United States as their residual market and I cannot see any reason why they would stop, especially if the anti-dumping order goes away.”

Dumping is bad because it can drive domestic producers out of business while destabilizing world markets.U.S.firms can file an anti-dumping petition with the International Trade Commission, which investigate the matter.

If a domestic industry can prove foreign producers are selling product for less than “normal value,” including below the cost of production, then anti-dumping deposits can be imposed by the government.

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Filed under Brazil, COOL Country of origin labeling, Farming, Food Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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