Patriotism Is Hard To Define In A Global Economy Proposal To Ease Legal Definition Of ‘Made In Usa’ Sparks Protests

When old-fashioned patriotism meets the global economy, the result can be as messy as figuring out whether a Toyota manufactured in Kentucky can be labeled “Made in USA.”

A proposal by the Federal Trade Commission to ease the legal definition of “Made in USA” has triggered a wave of resistance, including more than 1,000 letters to the agency demanding that the label be allowed only for goods that are totally produced in America.

Often hand-written, many of the letters voice the fear that the United States is losing its industrial base and that any change in the “Made in USA” label would result in more jobs being sent overseas.

Under the current law, a product using the “Made in USA” label must be “all” or “virtually all” made in America, which is generally considered to be at least 98 percent American-made.

FTC spokeswoman Vicky Streitfeld said the agency’s staff will take the letters into consideration when they make their final recommendation to the commission next month. The FTC is expected to make a final decision by year-end.

The FTC proposed the looser standard because of the commission’s theory that consumers know that the “Made in USA” label no longer means that the product is 100 percent American-made.

But the letter writers to the FTC say they don’t want products to use the label if they’re not made entirely in the United States.

“The term ‘Made in USA’ is straight forward and easily understood,” Melvin A. Anthony, from Warmer Robins, Ga., wrote to the FTC. “If a company wants to label it’s products as Made in USA, it should be simple, LET THEM MAKE THEM IN THE USA.”

Linda Moss, from Roanoke, Va., wrote the FTC: “I was appalled to read … that the FTC was considering to further hoodwink the public by deliberately misleading and mislabeling our made in the USA products.”

Another writer, Kenneth G. Forman, of Mansfield Center, Conn., also complained about the proposal. “Globalization has its defenders, but we must think of the jobs that are needed here in this country,” he wrote. “Why should foreign workers benefit from false labeling?”

Economists and manufacturers say those letter writers who want the label restricted to products 100 percent made in the United States have a tough case to make.

“There are imported components in virtually everything,” said Robert Cumby, economics professor at Georgetown University. “From textiles to electronics, it’s quite difficult to find products made 100 percent in the United States.”

Cumby said changes in the U.S. economy have made questions over manufacturing content irrelevant and outdated.

“In the modern world, and particularly in the United States, employment has shifted from workers on the assembly line to office workers,” he said.

The emphasis on factory workers focuses attention on what drove the American economy 30 or 40 years ago and fails to recognize that the United States is now a service-based economy, he said.

“What about the research and design that goes into a product? Or the marketing to make Nike shoes popular? Or even the distribution networks that get the product to the store?” Cumby said. “These jobs … are the kinds of jobs we want in our country.”

The FTC’s proposed new guidelines would allow a product to be called “Made in USA” if “substantially all” was made in America. This means that:

U.S. manufacturing costs constitute at least 75 percent of the total manufacturing costs and the product was last “substantially transformed” - a U.S. Customs Service term for assembled - in the United States.

Or the product was last substantially transformed in the United States along with all its significant components or parts.