What Does Made in the USA Mean?

You probably see it all the time on products and in advertising: Made in the USA. It’s even more common if you include related wording like American-Made and Manufactured in America.

It’s fairly clear how most people would interpret such wording, but these sorts of claims are governed by complex Federal Trade Commission standards.

For most product categories (and virtually everything in the maintenance, repair and operations industry), there’s no legal requirement to specifically state anything about their American-made content. But, in most cases, a company wants to share when products are Made in the USA as a selling point.

When companies do so, they are required to follow the FTC’s relevant rules. The rules must be followed on products and their labels, as well as in all related advertising and marketing.

Made in the USA claims can either be explicitly stated (“Made in the USA”) or implied.

What is an implied claim? The FTC gives this example:

“A company promotes its product in an ad that features a manager describing the ‘true American quality’ of the work produced at the company’s American factory. Although there is no express representation that the company’s product is made in the U.S., the overall — or net — impression the ad is likely to convey to consumers is that the product is of U.S. origin.”

So, what is the rule? In short, it is: “For a product to be called Made in USA, or claimed to be of domestic origin without qualifications or limits on the claim, the product must be ‘all or virtually all’ made in the U.S.”

“All or virtually all” means “the product’s final assembly or processing must take place in the U.S. The commission then considers other factors, including how much of the product’s total manufacturing costs can be assigned to U.S. parts and processing, and how far removed any foreign content is from the finished product.”

To get around these strict guidelines, sometimes companies will look to use related claims, such as Assembled in the USA or Designed in the USA. They also might make qualified claims like Made in the USA of U.S. and Imported Parts. These are not the same thing as a full-fledged Made in the USA claim.

Whether a product is labeled as Made in the USA or has a more limited claim, the claim must be true, and the company must have evidence to support it.

Kimball Midwest believes in the American workforce, but we put our money where our mouth is. Did you know 80% of our inventory spend goes to products made in the USA?

We believe in American-made products for many reasons, and four of the biggest are quality assurance, dependability, traceability and supporting American jobs.

For example, Kimball Midwest’s KM-USA High Head Grade 8 Cap Screw line is fully traceable back to the lot of raw material. This ensures consistent and trustworthy performance, something that simply cannot be guaranteed by imported competitors.

Also, a primarily domestic supply base allows Kimball Midwest to keep close partnerships with suppliers with frequent site visits, vendor meetings and troubleshooting any time problems occur. These benefits might not exist or might be harder to maintain without a largely domestic supply base.

American-made products help provide jobs for today’s American workforce and keep jobs here for future generations. American manufacturing jobs also create a cycle that helps grow our economy and create more demand and, thus, more jobs.

American businesses and workers are the backbone of our nation, and keeping manufacturing here helps maintain our economic independence.

According to the Manufacturers Alliance, manufacturing’s value chain accounts for about one-third of the United States’ gross domestic product and employment. For every dollar of domestic manufacturing, another $3.60 in added value is generated elsewhere. And for each job in manufacturing, 3.4 jobs are created in other industries.

We hope you agree buying American whenever possible just makes sense, both for your business and our nation. Your Kimball Midwest sales representative would be excited to help you do just that. If you need to be connected with a rep in your area, we would love to help you .