Made in Taiwan Flags Stir Made in U.S. Flap

A Taiwan manufacturer’s suggestion that American companies buy foreign-made U.S. flags and replace “Made in Taiwan” labels with “Made in U.S.A.” has caused a small uproar on Capitol Hill.

“In all my years as a member of Congress, few issues have struck me as being as blatantly outrageous” as the label-switch proposal, Rep. Douglas Applegate (D-Ohio) wrote in a letter seeking a Customs Service investigation.

Applegate was one of several members of Congress who asked Customs to look into the issue. The inquiries were triggered by a letter-writing campaign by domestic flag manufacturers.

“I feel we can compete with a U.S. flag labeled ‘Made in Taiwan’ but we cannot compete with a U.S. flag labeled ‘Made in U.S.A.’ when in fact it wasn’t,” wrote Vane Scott, general manager of the Colonial Flag Co. in Coshocton, Ohio.

Scott provided Applegate with a copy of a three-page 1987 solicitation on the letterhead of the Ming Teh Flag Co. Ltd. of Taipei, Taiwan, which suggested changing “Made in Taiwan” labels after the flag shipments had cleared Customs.

“We can realize why you need to lift off this label . . . to prevent the resistance in U.S. to import flags,” the solicitation said. “If possible, we suggest you cut off this label after you receive the goods and spend very little cost to mark on the flags your own brand name and Made In U.S.A. signs.”

“We can offer the labels too,” the solicitation added.

The copy, which does not show to whom the solicitation was originally addressed, was forwarded to Customs by several congressional offices. About a week ago the Customs Service asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into the situation.

But Robert Easton, special assistant for enforcement in the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, said there’s no evidence yet that an American flag importer has violated country-of-origin labeling requirements.

“We can’t do anything,” Easton said. “There’s no violation in just sending a letter.”

Whitney Smith, executive director of the Flag Research Center in Winchester, Mass., said he had not heard of label-switching as a widespread problem, but had heard complaints of textile companies in Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong cutting into the domestic market with foreign-made Stars and Stripes.

In many cases, he said, the foreign companies send semi-finished products to the United States, where they are completed and perhaps packaged along with poles and decorative eagles.

If more than half of the contents in a package come from the United States, a company can legally remove a country-of-origin label such as “Made in Taiwan,” said Easton. But “they can’t say ‘Made in U.S.A.’ unless it’s made in the U.S.A.,” he said.