Presently it is required to label ‘country of origin’ on goods, thus we get the “Made in China” label. However, manufacturers are increasingly using deceptive tricks to fool people into believing their products are American-made, when they are not, such as saying “Designed and Assembled in the USA”. ‘Assembled’ does not mean ‘made in’, it means it shipped in two pieces and they snapped them together.
Another issue with this labeling law is it has not been updated to cover digital sales. A retailer is under zero obligation to provide information on country of origin. You cannot know if a product is made in China until you purchase it and find it on the box.
Product labeling should update with the times to increasingly drive consumers towards American-made goods, or perhaps countries that are in the Western sphere of influence and economics, with a color and letter-grading system prominently displayed, using a required list of stated criteria. For example: manufacturing origin, assembly/packaging location, higher-headquarters country of origin, or something along those lines.
Instead of a tiny “made in China”, a large prominent colored label with a flat F-grade in red would be applied instead. This label would also be required to be shown on any product for sale in an online store. Every product on Amazon would have to provide this label clearly for all to see. This would also apply to GSA Advantage or other government purchasing sites and compliance would be updated in the Federal Acquisitions Regulation (FAR).
These letter grades could reflect good trade practices as well as penalize foreign companies that keep money overseas in tax havens. For example, Ireland is a known tax haven, and any company operating out of Ireland would be penalized. However, if a product were fully Canadian, it could get a B rating. A ratings are for fully American companies.
A simple example is below, but do not read too much into what scores I assigned, it is simply an example.
