# What qualifies a product as Made in America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2009, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079 "2009-05-02T12:15:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/1 "2009-05-02T12:15:45Z")
My husband bought a Milwaukee drill yesterday. He was all excited about it, blah, blah, tool bliss, blah. Whilst sitting there fawning over it, he noticed it has a tag stating “Made in China.” So he got to thinking he’d like to buy an American made drill. So I start with the Googling and go to this site: [http://madeintheusabyamericans.blogspot.com/2008/07/american-made-hand-tools.html](http://madeintheusabyamericans.blogspot.com/2008/07/american-made-hand-tools.html) so he could find something that’s made here. Lo and behold, Milwaukee is on the list! So I start scoping around Milwaukee’s site, and I can’t find any info on where the tools are made. They employ 1000 people globally. So…what’s the deal? What constitutes a Made in America designation? Is it simply the fact that the corporation is headquartered in the US? ---
**Author:** ![Melkor28](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Melkor28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melkor28)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/2 "2009-05-02T13:10:32Z")
Some of Milwaukee Drills are probably made in the USA, while others are made in China. I had a similar experience with Charhartt. Recently I purchased a Charhartt jacket online. They had a section for “Made in the USA”, only one of their jackets was USA, out of about 20, the rest China. I am a union construction worker, and try to buy made in the USA. But it’s almost impossible with most things. I bet all my coworkers think they have a made in USA jacket on, but don’t. The Milwaukee site didn’t have info on where each different drill was made. I suppose you could call and ask; or visit a store and look at each model. I wound up getting a Charhartt made in China; the one made in USA, was their crappiest model. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/3 "2009-05-02T18:45:43Z")
I’ve always assumed there is no law or anything that regulates it. I know of some “made in the USA” products which are simply assembled here with foreign parts. Automobiles are a bit different. The window stickers usually have a percentage breakdown of where the parts came from and where it was assembled. I assume there’s some regulation behind that. ---
**Author:** ![moldmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@moldmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/4 "2009-05-02T18:51:28Z")
Actually Milwaukee is now owned by a Chinese company, TTI. See: [MILWAUKEE HISTORY](http://www.milwaukeetool.com/About/MilwaukeeStory/Default.aspx) [TTI HQ](http://www.ttigroup.com/en/contact_us/divisions/asia) It’s hard to decide what constitutes an American product. American owned & made, American owned & made elsewhere, foreign owned & made here. 😕 A lot of brand name tools now have will have value lines made elsewhere and don’t necessarily make it easy to find that out. Even Starrett (an old name in precision measuring tools) has gone that route which is just sad to machinists like myself. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/5 "2009-05-02T19:04:02Z")
From the Federal Trade Commission > [@](#): > > Traditionally, the Commission has required that a product advertised as Made in USA be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. After a comprehensive review of Made in USA and other U.S. origin claims in product advertising and labeling, the Commission announced in December 1997 that it would retain the “all or virtually all” standard. Further information from the [FTC website](http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/adv/bus03.shtm) Here is a search engine that might be worth a look at, it’s called [MadeInUSA.ORG](http://www.madeinusa.org/) ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/6 "2009-05-03T07:05:38Z")
Charhartt jackets? Sounds like a cheap Chinese knockoff of Carhartt. 😃 I just took a look in my front closet, and my Carhartt jacket, coat and vest are all labeled as made in the USA. Same goes for the Carhartt pants I’m wearing. These are all in their regular canvas type material. It is entirely possible that the “specialty” stuff like raincoats or fire-resistant products are made elsewhere. I didn’t notice any claims as to where any particular style was made on their website. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/7 "2009-05-03T10:50:51Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > From the Federal Trade Commission > > Further information from the [FTC website](http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/adv/bus03.shtm) > > Here is a search engine that might be worth a look at, it’s called [MadeInUSA.ORG](http://www.madeinusa.org/) Thanks for that link. I noticed Harbor Freight Tools is on the list. My BILs do “Man Dates” to the Harbor Tools in my area. Mr. K went with once and said it was nothing but cheap import crap (which this site affirms). I guess there are some items made in the USA, but it is mostly imported stuff. I think this just highlights the fact that we don’t make enough good stuff in the US anymore. Years ago, Chinese-made products were inferior. Nowadays, they are the best products available. Complex problem with no quick fix. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/8 "2009-05-03T11:08:12Z")
> [@moldmonkey](#): > > It’s hard to decide what constitutes an American product. American owned & made, American owned & made elsewhere, foreign owned & made here. 😕 And don’t forget that many products may have their individual parts or raw materials produced in one country, and then shipped to another country to be processed/assembled, and then the final product shipped yet again to another country to be sold. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-a-product-as-made-in-america/495079/9 "2009-05-03T11:14:18Z")
A lot of things that have the Made in America label are actually made in American territories that do not have the same worker protections and minimum wage as in the states. One of Jack Abramff’s biggest clients was the American Territory of Mariana Islands which paid him to keep Congress from legislating workers rights. [http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/05/how-much/](http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/05/how-much/) In essence the Made in Americal stamp doesn’t have much meaning. From his wiki article: [Jack Abramoff - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff) “Abramoff and his law firm were paid at least $6.7 million by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) from 1995 to 2001, which may manufacture goods with the “Made in the USA” label but is not subject to U.S. labor and minimum wage laws. After Abramoff paid for DeLay and his staffers to go on trips to the CNMI, they crafted policy that extended exemptions from federal immigration and labor laws to the islands’ industries. Abramoff also negotiated for a $1.2 million no-bid contract from the Marianas for ‘promoting ethics in government’ to be awarded to David Lapin, brother of Daniel Lapin. Abramoff also secretly funded a trip for James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS). In 1999 Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) went on an Abramoff-funded trip to the Marshall Islands with John Doolittle (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), delegates of Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and 8 staffers.”