‘Made In Usa’ Definition Will Remain Unchanged

The Federal Trade Commission decided Monday to continue its definition of “Made in USA” labels to mean products are “all or virtually all” made in the United States.

The commission had undertaken a two-year study to determine if the definition was outdated by global economics and should be expanded to permit more foreign content.

As a result, it proposed last summer guidelines that would have allowed companies to use the label if “substantially all” of a product was made from American parts or assembled by U.S. laborers. Under that proposal, merchandise with as little as 75 percent U.S. parts could bear the label.

Public reaction overwhelmingly was opposed to the change. The FTC said a majority of more than 1,000 written comments strongly supported the current standard. Changes also came under fire on Capitol Hill and from organized labor.

“The record, in particular, the overwhelming response to our request for public comment … convinced us that when consumers see a ‘Made in USA’ label, they expect and want it to mean just that,” said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau.

The commission voted 4 to 0 to accept the bureau’s recommendation that the “all or virtually all” standard be retained.

The commission said that although there is no “bright line” to establish when a product is “all or virtually all” made in the United States, it would consider several factors.

First, “the final assembly or processing of the product must take place in the United States.”

Other factors will be the portion of the product’s total manufacturing costs that are attributable to U.S. parts and processing and how far removed from the finished product any foreign content is.