FTC: Made In The USA Comments Concerning Roger S. Emery--P894219

ROGER S. EMERY

1912 East Water Street
Phone: (520) 325-4114, 325-2511		         Tucson, AZ 85712-5460
Fax No.: (520) 325-4465

 

TO: Federal Trade Commission, Enforcement Division
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580

FROM:Roger Emery, taxpayer & consumer

RE: 'MADE IN USA' article, May 6,1997 - WALL STREET JOURNAL, Section ?B’

From reading the (Wall Street Journal) article, I understand that the FTC is considering a change in procedure, which would in effect allow products not exclusively made in the USA, to be labeled, literally as if the products were made in the USA. Freedom of choice is the issue here.

It seems as if U.S. Government officials are attempting to obfuscate and confuse the American consumer to placate the special interests of multinational conglomerates over the interests and freedom of choice of the American people. It is of course all about money and power with Government and the lobbyists who buy the loyalty of Government over and ahead of the interests of the taxpayers who fund that very government with their labor.

Need I point out that in a free society, unbridled by pandering special interest entities, (figuratively) we vote every day when we purchase products. The FDA has spent thousands of millions of our taxpayer dollars to ensure that we know all of the ingredients contained in the food products we purchase in grocery stores. This allows a person to avoid salt, fat, MSG, etcetera when selecting one product over another. So the question follows: Why would the FTC move 180· in the other direction? Who would the U.S. taxpayer be accommodating with a proposed change in the current labeling procedure to allow a MADE IN THE USA label to mean that the product could in fact be manufactured in another country? The article states that the new labeling procedure would allow an obvious equivocation of the true facts of where and how the product was made. Again, whose interests do you propose to serve, the American taxpayer and consumer, or the multinational conglomerates?

The New Age of American Government changes the English language to connote its whims and fancies - feeding the American people less choice, more government interference and more taxes - WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Please allow the English language and our “Truth in Labeling Laws” to be literal in translation, to mean what they say, and to allow the American taxpayer to have freedom of choice, with full disclosure the rule, not the paradox.