Google's Moto X: Difference Between Made In America And Assembled In America
An interesting little point made in passing at The Verge is this about Google‘s upcoming Moto X. There’s a rather large difference between “Made in America” and “assembled in America”. And it’s also true that given the difference between those two the least valuable part of the process is the “assembled” part. It might still be true that Google will attract buyers as a result of the assembly in the Good Ol’ US, but it really isn’t where the value add is nor where the good wages are.
Today at the AllThingsD conference Dennis Woodside revealed how we are reinventing Motorola through a portfolio of products starting with Moto X, a new flagship smartphone that will be designed, engineered and assembled in the USA. We’re not talking about just a handful of units either — available this summer, every Moto X sold in the USA will be assembled in Fort Worth, Texas, making it the first smartphone ever assembled domestically.
What is the standard for a product to be called Made in USA without qualification?
For a product to be called Made in USA, or claimed to be of domestic origin without qualifications or limits on the claim, the product must be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. The term “United States,” as referred to in the Enforcement Policy Statement, includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories and possessions.
What does “all or virtually all” mean?“All or virtually all” means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no — or negligible — foreign content.
This might be a nice addition to employment possibilities in America but it’s really not the return of high paid manufacturing work, not at all.
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