Tell the FTC: Enforce Made in the USA Standards!

By Matthew McMullan
Oct 09 2019 |

Purposely mislabeling products isn’t cool.

Last week we told you about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent workshop on Made in the USA labeling, where topic experts examined what that labeling means and what it’s standard should be.

The event was filmed and you can watch the whole thing on the FTC’s website. It’s four hours long. Don’t even lie, you know you want to:

But if you don’t have an afternoon to kill, here’s a big takeaway for you: Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul participated and stressed that the FTC’s enforcement mechanism – to make sure companies don’t mislabel their products as American-made – is pretty weak. He’s right; as Beth wrote a few weeks ago, companies misuse the American-made label a lot and get away scot-free.  

Scott also argued that even if manufacturing is a global industries and inputs for products come from all over the globe these days, that’s no reason to weaken the FTC’s definition of “Made in the USA.” He said:

I have no doubt that in some particular industries where there aren’t well-developed domestic supply chains that it’s much more challenging to earn that designation. Again, I don’t think most consumers or even a significant minority are willing to grade companies on a curve here. They have a certain expectation. And the companies that are adhering to that expectation, whether its steel companies or textile companies or other manufacturers, they use that label to set themselves apart in the market place. …

And it’s important to those manufacturers who have chosen to both stay in the united states and support jobs and to maintain that very high standard, because it is a differentiation in the marketplace that’s valued by consumers.

He’s right. Consumers put a premium on American-made products.

There’s still time to tell the FTC what you think. Do you think it should strengthen enforcement against cheats who mislabel their products as “Made in USA?” Then sign the petition!