Almost 8 in 10 USA consumers say they would rather buy a USA-made product than an imported one, according to a nationally representative Consumer Reports survey published May 21, 2015. More than 60% said they would pay 10% more for it.
Labels that confuse
Consumer Reports said shoppers often cannot tell whether a “Made in USA” claim is true. Under Federal Trade Commission standards, “all or virtually all” of a product labeled “Made in USA” must be of USA origin, with no more than a negligible amount of foreign content, and its final assembly or processing must take place in the USA. Companies can also make qualified claims for products that are only partly domestic. One example the magazine cited was a GE refrigerator labeled with 87% USA content.
The FTC does not police every product on the market. Julia Solomon Ensor, an FTC lawyer, said most complaints come from competing companies, because “it’s very difficult for the typical consumer to know if a claim is true or not.” Unlike Energy Star, the FTC has no single standard “Made in USA” label, so companies design their own.
Who makes what
- GE Appliances said it had invested $1 billion since 2009 to bring some manufacturing back to the USA, mostly at Appliance Park in Louisville, adding 3,000 manufacturing jobs.
- Whirlpool said about 80% of the appliances it sells in the USA are made here, in eight factories employing 15,000 workers. Its label does not say how much foreign content they contain.
- Apple makes a few products in the USA, including the Mac Pro in Austin, Texas, but most of its manufacturing is in China.
- Many Kenmore appliances are made in the USA but carry no patriotic label, because the brand also uses foreign manufacturers.
The magazine also cited Reshoring Initiative figures showing that about 300 companies had brought operations back to the USA since 2010. It urged shoppers who spot a bogus claim to file a complaint at ftc.gov. The report also ran in the July 2015 issue of Consumer Reports.
Source & credit
Source: Consumer Reports: “Made in America”, May 21, 2015 (July 2015 issue). Alert item: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Consumer Reports: Made in America?”, Aug. 28, 2015.