By Rob Bates, News Director - Posted on September 11, 2014
"The Federal Trade Commission is not granting an industry request that would allow products to be labeled “made in the USA” if they contain metals recycled in the United States.
The agency said that while it wasn’t issuing a final opinion on the question at this time, it noted that past studies indicate that consumers believe a made in the USA–labeled piece should comprise all American materials—and if a piece contains recycled metals, those metals may have originated elsewhere.
“Unless a marketer can substantiate that all components of a recycled piece—including natural resources—originated in the United States, based on the record before us, it appears that an unqualified U.S. origin claim [for products with recycled metals] may deceive a significant number of consumers,” agency secretary Donald S. Clark wrote in a Sept. 9 letter to Jewelers Vigilance Committee president and CEO Cecilia Gardner.
Still, the agency left the door open to reconsider the question. “If additional testing were to show that recycling gold and precious minerals changes consumer perception of U.S. origin claims for those items, we would reevaluate,” the letter added.
It said “its staff is available to help craft qualified claims that avoid deception while highlighting the work done to recycle precious metal in this country.”
The industry groups—the Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America, Jewelers of America, the American Gem Trade Association, and the Richline Group—argued that it isn’t easy for jewelry manufacturers to comply with the current guidelines for the label, which requires all components to be produced domestically. They contended that when metals are recycled, they begin a new life cycle, regardless of their initial origin, so metals recycled in the United States should qualify.
A statement from the groups said they are considering their next steps."
http://www.jckonline.com/2014/09/11/pie ... -306540353
Rockranger wrote:Now who is the ass who thought of this?So if I melt a gold nugget, and now it would be considered "recycled". I cant sell it as legit because it's not dug out of the ground in the USA?
PinkDiamond wrote:Yup, but you can say it's made in Canada since you're not in the USA anyway.
SwordfishMining wrote:Great idea to me for an "all American label" for instance...only if you could get the entire world to agree and stop labeling it made in China if it was not entirely mined and sourced there, LOL, or made in Mexico if it was done with an Ethiopian opal. If you want to call something "product of" it must be virgin "mined in" and all labor done there. Keeps all the child labor/blood gold/silver/gemstones out of domestic LABELLED production that was only intended to be sold ON the cachet of it's entirely from here. I DO believe traditionally "made" only refers to the labor (factory location for child labor laws) involved for the metal work and then sold as ordinary jewelery. I say keep the factories from intruding on the craftsman market as much as possible to protect the artisans who care. Local recycled is no different than bought if it was local material otherwise, you ARE cheating and trying to steal the reputation of the source and those sources can be VERY protective of their reputation such as in LR opals' superiority over any on earth. Just be green and say the metal used was locally recycled and you have your equally PC sales pitch "made in" - not "product of". I bet other languages don't have such anal semantics.
mick wrote:The world is full of stupid people with stupid ideas. What next, only an American can sell it? Must the paper bag be made in america? what if some foreign worker made it, an illegal? I guess that would be OK because the profit margin would be more.
In the early 1990s at one of the G,6,8,10,12,20 whatever summits, it was decided, discussed, voted on, that India would become the world service centre ala call centres to help their economy, and china would become the manufacturing capital of the world. All assistance is to be given, no impediments to trade bla bla.
It got a small mention in one paper here and not another word has been said about it. It is never mentioned I think because politicians are idiots - largely spoon fed, I bet 80% wouldnt know why India and China now do what they do.
I can see why Australias PM at the time John Howard wanted it as we now have every chinaman and his dog if not eaten already, buying property here. Our laws are so slack they can be worked around by any fool and next thing you know, own 5 houses in the one street. The cost of an average house here is now 5 x the average annual salary. 10 x by the time you have paid it off. It was 2 x pre 1990. Its been driven through the roof by the chinese. We now have the highest priced residential housing in the world. Higher than Iceland which has 1 tree on it. We are a nation of idiots, we protest against nothing but roads.
There will always be a market for non chinese goods, surely more expensive, but if its a good product, it will sell and last longer than 10 chinese knock offs.
The insult is that many good brands, US, UK, AUS etc are now made in china to lower specs to make the owners richer. They dont make a good product cheaper for the consumer, they make one of lesser quality to make more money.
It seems to me that China mass producing everything we buy is not raising our standard of living, if anything, its slipping. You now have to buy 7 refrigerators in your lifetime and 10 washing machines, not one of each. What is happening is that the west is raising the standard of living in poorer countries through direct financial aid and now economic aid paid for by the taxpayer who has no say in any of it.
Rockranger wrote:The insult is that many good brands, US, UK, AUS etc are now made in china to lower specs to make the owners richer. They dont make a good product cheaper for the consumer, they make one of lesser quality to make more money.
Same as here Mick, cheaper to have it made in asia and less money to pay out in labour costs. Were having a problem here and the laws were just changed to stop companys from hiring foreign workers for less money then to hire a homegrown and schooled canadian worker in that trade. Lack of Safety knowledge is the biggest hurdle from foreign workers and the language gap.
PinkDiamond wrote:Well you're really lucky if they're looking out for native Canadians Rock. Our Dept of Injustice recently said companies cannot even ask about the legal status of applicants anymore, nor can they ask anything about them including their education, or whether or not they've even been vaccinated; but if you're an American who was born and bred here, they want every bit of information on you, your family and friends, and you'd better have had your shots.
Even then, you still won't get the job with the flood of illegals this administration is forcing companies to hire and filter in who are being given precedence over Americans already struggling, and also willing to work for sub-par wages. It's disgusting to give lawbreakers entering this country illegally more benefits and perks than our own citizens, but it serves as another planned disaster that's just waiting to happen so more power can be accumulated, and that power will be in the hands of all the big businesses, including big oil, big pHARMa, big banking, and lets not forget big war, where corporations plan unthinkable destruction, and then fund both sides so they can get to see their toys in action, and last but certainly not least, the flunky puppets in congress whose careers are owed to those corporations that got them there. So they get more dominion, power and authority, along with absurd amounts of money, and you get less freedom, and the ability to maintain your lifestyle and live comfortably is significantly diminished. And what the hell are we going to do about it??
They're actually attacking companies who do try to abide by the law of the land, and they've given all sorts of tax breaks to companies who have moved their production plants out of the country, to where they can pay unlivable wages to people who have to work in conditions they wouldn't be allowed to get away with here, when they bring those products back into the country to sell. It's not right, but getting people to boycott those companies and buy products made here is like pulling teeth when people are left wondering if they should buy groceries or their meds, or maybe pay their electric bill, so the plague continues unabated.
Walgreens just caught a bunch of flack for saying they were moving their HQ offshore, as did Burger King, who wants to head north for Canada's tax breaks. I can't blame them for moving to wherever the taxes are most favorable, but if they do, there should be some sort of compensation, like a tax on them for the privilege of doing business here to even out the playing field for companies who don't flee the country; but of course, if there was, they would simply pass it off onto consumers, so it's a lose-lose situation for this country no matter how you slice it, and you can thank the boobs in the district of criminals for dismantling this country company by company, by putting the tax laws in place that makes all of it perfectly legal.
As for the shoddy products, they started building what I call 'planned obsolescence' into them decades ago because they don't think they can stay in business if those appliances, etc. all last forever; as if there weren't enough new consumers coming along every day. Their bottom line is always more important than how they make their money, so they just have cheap Chinese labor make inferior products and replacement parts made from inferior, and at times even questionable and deadly materials, so the gravy train keeps chugging right along.
It has been said that our representatives should be forced to wear the insignia logos of the corporations that put them in office, like race car drivers do, and it sure would be helpful for the public to know which corporations they're electing when they vote for these clowns.
Rockranger wrote:Sad thing....So far it has only being introduced in the food industry.
Burgerking has established it self for years here, Luv the king burger....so i wasnt surprised to hear of them expanding more into Canada for a tax saving.
I have kept up on the things you mentioned and it is all true.
