If you ask most citizens of the U.S.A. about imported, sometime exotic, consumer goods then certain stereotypes immediately come to mind. German cars are well engineered. Italian cars are exciting and sexy. Japanese cars are reliable and an excellent value for money. Swiss watches have an entirely mythology surrounding their legendary qualities. Chinese goods may give you a bit of cancer but are dirt cheap. The list goes on.
Is the opposite ever true? Does a non-U.S.A. resident ever look at something, see the “MADE IN U.S.A.” label and think "Yes, I trust that. I know what I’m getting and it has (desirable trait X).) We ship our pop culture, movies and TV shows around the world and American farmers feed a fair number of people globally but as far as finished, manufactured goods, I’m not really thinking of any.
What say ye of the global Dope community? Do manufacturers in the U.S.A. do anything well?
Maybe, but as a consumer…nothing springs to mind. BBQ sauce maybe?
One could argue “entertainment”, since American movies and TV dominate to the extent where it is assumed to be from the US, unless it is explicitly mentioned to be from elsewhere.
This UK citizen differentiates between high-tech stuff like computers and fighter planes and ordinary everyday stuff like cars, white goods, clothes and food.
For the former - yes. Most of the Silicon Valley products are well made and desirable and we do quite like the weapons. For the latter - not so much. American cars are too big, too thirsty and mostly poorly engineered. Based partly on what I read on this forum, white goods in the USA are behind Europe’s in almost every respect, clothing looks old fashioned (apart from haute couture) and there is a general distrust of American produce, partly fueled by the anti-GM lobby. From my personal experience, American cheese is pretty vile and chocolate is disgusting - oh! and bread is over-sweet to the point of being inedible.
So - you make good weapon systems and high-tech stuff (Is any of it still actually *made *in the USA?) but for the man in the street, “Made in America” is not a good sales point.
Many Chinese tourists will load up on American-made vitamins, medicines and supplements when they’re visiting the United States, because the meds back home in China are known to often be substandard or problematic. But that may be less an indication of high U.S. quality than low Chinese quality.
Here in Panama, US brands in supermarkets are often better quality than local brands. This goes for fresh produce of some kinds as well - sweet corn, celery, lettuce, potatoes, and others are better quality than that that is locally produced.
This doesn’t go for cars, where Japanese makes overwhelmingly dominate the market.
As someone who grew up in Japan, I can’t think of any American consumer products that are actually made in the USA and valued in Japan for it.
If we include non-consumer goods, I hear American cotton is prized for being the best quality. A lot of cotton is exported from the US and go through several countries before coming back to the US as clothing.
In addition, even when offered the option of American warplanes, many nations have opted for rival products instead.
Brazil was offered Super Hornet; they chose to buy Swedish Gripen instead.
India was offered F-16 or Super Hornet; they chose to go with French Rafale instead.
Hungary was offered the F-16; they went with Swedish Gripens.
Qatar looked into Strike Eagle, Super Hornet or F-35, decided to go Eurofighter and Rafale instead.