Country of Origin Marking
Posted on May 31, 2013Unless excepted by law, every article of foreign origin (or its container), imported into the United States shall be marked in a conspicuous place as legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the nature of the article (or container) will permit in such manner as to indicate to an ultimate purchaser in the United States the English name of the country of origin of the article. Goods leaving a zone for entry into the United States must be properly marked with the applicable country of origin unless excepted under Customs regulations. If an imported article undergoes a substantial transformation while in the foreign-trade zone, that is, such processing that the resultant product is one having a name, character or use differing from that of the article that was admitted into the foreign-trade zone, the final product may no longer be considered to be of foreign origin. Authorization of the use of the legend “Made in USA” is beyond the scope of the U.S. Bureau of Customs & Border Protection; it is within the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission. If no transformation occurs, the requirements of Section 304 of the Tariff Act must be met upon entry of the merchandise into the Customs territory.