‘Made in China’ options flood the US market

WASHINGTON —

As the US presidential election enters its final phase, more and more voters are expressing support for their preferred candidate by wearing campaign merchandise.

What they may not realize is that the “Make America Great Again” Trump hat or the “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” T-shirt they are wearing may have been made in China.

Using e-commerce platforms, Chinese merchants are flooding the US discretionary market with cheap goods. Anecdotal evidence suggests that US manufacturers of these products are struggling to compete.

“I think the amount of stuff on Amazon and Etsy coming from China and other countries in cargo ships and being unloaded on American shores is having a drastic impact on the ability of American manufacturers, like myself, to compete and grow our own business. I think it’s dramatic,” said Ben Waxman, founder and co-owner of American Roots, an American apparel company.

Waxman would not share production or profit figures with the VOA Mandarin Service because of privacy concerns, but he said, for example, that his American-made campaign T-shirts sell for about $15 each, while those at Chinese online retailer Temu can sell for as little as $3.

“It’s more expensive when you’re paying higher wages, living wages and meeting environmental standards,” Waxman said, citing longstanding criticism of China’s manufacturing practices.

His unionized company has produced campaign merchandise for presidential candidates since 2016, mainly T-shirts and sweatshirts, with all raw materials and production sourced in the United States

Flooding the market

VOA Mandarin Service was unable to find total sales figures for US-made versus China-made options. But the massive number of Chinese election products for sale on e-commerce platforms including Amazon and eBay shows that they are flooding the market.

On Temu alone, tens of thousands of election-themed items have been sold at a fraction of the price of the official campaign versions.

Among them, a “Make America Great Again” hat costs less than $4, while the official Trump campaign store website, which boasts “All Products Made in the USA,” sells them for 10 times that price at $40 each.

Likewise, Temu’s “Kamala Harris 2024” hats retail for less than $3 each, while the official Kamala Harris campaign store website sells “Kamala” hats for $47 each.

The Harris campaign also pledged to sell only US-made products on its official websites.

VOA asked both campaigns for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The stark contrast in prices highlights the challenges the U.S. faces in reducing its reliance on Chinese products and closing a trade loophole, known as the de minimis loophole, that allows Chinese companies to ship goods valued at less than $800 to the United States without paying import duties.

Kim Glas, president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, a trade association representing domestic textile manufacturers, said abuse of the de minimis loophole is widespread, adding that her group “lost 21 manufacturing operations over the last 18 months.”

Glas said some of NCTO’s member manufacturers found that sales of campaign products are slower this year than in any previous US election cycle.

VOA Mandarin contacted Amazon and eBay for comment on the amount of presidential campaign merchandise imported from China on their websites and their rules from the Chinese suppliers, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Temu did not comment on US election product sales, but a company spokesperson responded in an email to VOA Mandarin: “Temu’s growth is not dependent on the de minimis policy. The primary drivers behind our rapid expansion and market acceptance are supply chain efficiency and operational skills, we have cultivated over the years.”

The spokesman added: “We are open to and support any policy adjustments made by lawmakers that align with consumer interests.”

Representatives of the US textile industry note the irony of the two US presidential candidates talking tough about trade with China, while their own supporters are buying Chinese-made products to show their support.

“If someone supports a candidate because of that candidate’s economic policies and their position on improving our economy and improving our environment and improving our working conditions, and doing that by increasing the amount of domestic production, and then they support a candidate by buying a product that’s made in a country that stands for the opposite of that, they’re actually doing themselves and the candidate and the economy a disservice,” said Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a New York-based apparel company that has provided more than 300,000 baseball caps to Harris’ campaign.

‘Everyone can make the product’

Cahn notes that anyone can produce campaign products because the campaigns do not control their intellectual property. They believe that “it is more valuable to them to have a person wear the name of the campaign on their head than it is to make money selling the item.”

“Once someone can make the product and sell it, a lot of the products will end up being made in China because there just aren’t many manufacturers here,” he told VOA Mandarin.

The Associated Press reported on Oct. 18 that thousands of Donald Trump’s “God Bless America” ​​Bibles were printed in China. The AP also noted that most Bibles, not just the Trump-backed one, are made in China.

Critics note that Trump’s promotion of Made in the USA products could be undermined by the disclosure.

“In past (election) years, this would have been a scandal,” said Marc Zdanow, political consultant and executive director of Engage Voters US. “I think Trump voters don’t care. … I guess the question is whether or not this rises to the top for the voters who are still undecided. This issue is certainly one that could be enough to push this group away from Trump.”

Chris Tang, a professor of business administration and global management at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, told VOA Mandarin that the impact of goods made in China on the U.S. economy is not just about unilateral manufacturing job losses. Consumers also get these products at low prices.

“Although there are job losses in manufacturing, it creates opportunities for small businesses to import small quantities quickly by using (online Chinese sellers like) Alibaba to find suppliers to produce choice goods quickly and sell them online quickly.”

Tang said the U.S. should develop a manufacturing sector that focuses on high-value products, not low-cost ones, such as American choice goods.