What are the rules regarding statements of origin for manufactured goods?

I recently purchased a CD-R/W drive after carefully noting that the only statement of origin on the exterior of the box read "Assembled in U.S.A.". Upon opening the box, however, I discovered that the CD-R/W drive itself was marked "Made in China." Is this legal?

I would not have been particularly surprised or chagrinned if the PC board, case, gears, etc. had been made in China, imported to the U.S., and assembled here, but from what I can tell the only "assembly" that was done in the U.S., if any, was the act of putting the stuff into the retail box.

Interesting problem. Ususally the component parts are "assembled in the foreign country". Components usually were manufactured in the United States. The country of orgin stamped on the product used to be required to notify you of just that. Now things are a bit more confusing. Made in China doesn't tell you much. "Assembled in China" of "U.S. or foreign components".

Since so much now is manufactured in so many different countries other than the U.S. it is pretty difficult to get a handle on it and orgin of the components used. U.S. Customs enforces the "Country of Orgin" labeling on imported merchandise. I believe the Federal trade Commission administers it. It must be a real bear to deal with now.

Yes, but the box clearly states "assembled in USA". What, pray tell, was "assembled" in the U.S.A. if the only item of major value within the package was "made in China"? And how is one supposed to avoid Chinese products if they're not consistently labeled as such?

And how is one supposed to avoid Chinese products if they're not consistently labeled as such? . . . I expect I'll return the drive to the store and tell them why

That's about all you can do when you find out you have been misled into buying something made in China. Return and complain. I bought a product at Sharper Image last Nov. Walking down the mall, I searched it over, found it was made in China, and marched right back into the store, stood in the line again, and returned it. Later found the product in a catalog made in Switzerland.

Where do you find CD drives made in the USA these days? Have you researched the issue to find out if there are any actually made here?
My first eye-opening to this was some years ago, when I decided to buy a US made car. After sufficient research, I discovered that I could buy a car from a US company that was manufactured overseas, or a car from a Japanese company that was made in the US. It wasn't easy to find out, but I did.
Anyway, there are some things (particularly electronics) that just aren't made in the US anymore. Taking this one back won't do any good if you don't have an alternative.

Where do you find CD drives made in the USA these days? Have you researched the issue to find out if there are any actually made here? My first eye-opening to this was some years ago, when I decided to buy a US made car. After sufficient research, I discovered that I could buy a car from a US company that was manufactured overseas, or a car from a Japanese company that was made in the US. It wasn't easy to find out, but I did. Anyway, there are some things (particularly electronics) that just aren't made in the US anymore. Taking this one back won't do any good if you don't have an alternative.

I don't know of any made in the U.S. Samsung's, however, are made in Korea (i.e. not China), Yamaha's are made in Japan or Malaysia (neither of which is China), one company's are made in Singapore (not China), etc.

What's the problem with China? Our gov't policy is to trade with them. Are you also boycotting India and Pakistan? What makes China different?

Well, I'm not too keen on Pakinstan at the moment, but I've really not seen much of theirs for sale on store shelves.

Otherwise, I have personally sought to avoid Chinese products whenever possible, ever since one of our reconnaisance aircraft was downed by a Chinese fighter and not released in timely fashion. China is rapidly shaping up to become a major adversary, and I do not want to assist them in that goal.

BTW, I just opened up last weekend the package for a string of made-in-China "Christmas" lights which I bought last January on closeout. There is, I kid you not, a PLUG (not a socket) at both ends of the string. Plugging in either end will cause the other end to have exposed 120VAC on the prongs of its plug. QC problem, anyone?

As far as I know, CD-ROM drives, from the earliest days, were never made in the USA. They were Japanese-invented products costing upwards of $1,000 when first introduced (CD-R drives were close to $10,000 and blanks were about $30 each) and eventually migrated to other Asian countries where cost of manufacturing was lower once they became standardized commodities.

Early on, you had to shop for a particular model of CD-ROM drive and OS drivers certified to run the particular software title you wanted to run. It was crazy before widespread "Red Book" compatibility standards were adopted by the manufacturers, Microsoft and Apple.

Well, I'm not too keen on Pakinstan at the moment, but I've really not seen much of theirs for sale on store shelves.
Otherwise, I have personally sought to avoid Chinese products whenever possible, ever since one of our reconnaisance aircraft was downed by a Chinese fighter and not released in timely fashion. China is rapidly shaping up to become a major adversary, and I do not want to assist them in that goal.

We have a fair number of "guest workers" from Pakistan, including many in the tech industry. And we buy oil from quite a few adversarial countries. Anytime you shop at a store like Target or K-Mart, you are probably buying something from an adversary.
And all of the money you spend on an import from China doesn't go to China - there are the dockworkers who unload the cargo, the truck drivers who distribute it, and the stock workers and sales clerks in the store where you buy it. Those are the people who need their jobs.

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