If it doesn’t have this, it’s not “made in America”: the trick to knowing if a product is from the US
Donald Trump has looked to impose tariffs on products coming into the US, forcing citizens to buy local.
Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the word ‘tariff’ has been given an importance none of us thought possible.
The President of the Free World has thrown around the trade threat of tariffs like brand-new football, and doing so has caused a few feathers to be ruffled.
What are tariffs?
According to the BBC, tariffs are "taxes charged on goods imported from other countries" with companies that import goods from abroad paying the tariffs direct to the US government.
However, to combat the tariffs, companies raise the price of their imported goods, meaning that the consumer, you and I, end up effectively paying the difference.
At present, Trump has called for a 10% tariff on all goods from China, meaning something worth $10 would have an additional $1 charge.
Whatever you think of the decision from Trump, it will ultimately mean higher prices on imported goods, forcing people to look local for what they need. The problem is: the US doesn’t make enough products to satiate the population.
How do I know if a product is made in the USA?
Thankfully, there are ways to find out if a product is made in the US. According to governmental guidelines, under current Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, “a product may be advertised as “Made in the USA” if “all or virtually all” of the labor and materials in the product are domestic."
There is a certain flexibility in this rigid situation, however. If a “very small amount of foreign content” is used, the FTC standard allows the product to be described as “Made in the USA.”
As well as that, “the advertiser has the option to soften or “qualify” its Made in the USA claim by disclosing, for example, that the product is made in the U.S. with foreign and domestic materials", the guidelines state.
In short, there will be a label that says “Made in the USA”. But what most people don’t know is that the phrase “made in America” is not the same. This label can also be used for Canada and Mexico because of the free trade agreement (NAFTA) currently in place.
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