‘Made in China’ election items are flooding the US market

WASHINGTON—

As the US presidential election enters its final stages, more and more voters are showing their support for their favorite candidate by wearing election items.

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

Using e-commerce platforms, Chinese traders are flooding the US election merchandise market with cheap goods. Anecdotal evidence suggests that American makers of these products are struggling to compete.

“I think the amount of stuff on Amazon and Etsy coming in freighters from China and other countries and being unloaded on American shores is drastically impacting the ability of American manufacturers, like me, to compete and grow our own businesses.” let it grow. I think it’s dramatic,” says Ben Waxman, founder and co-owner of American Roots, an American clothing company.

Waxman wouldn’t share production or profit figures with VOA Mandarin Service due to privacy concerns, but he did say that his US-made campaign T-shirts, for example, sell for about $15 each, while those of Chinese online retailer Temu go for can be sold for about $15. only $3.

“It’s more expensive if you pay higher wages, living wages and adhere to environmental standards,” Waxman said, referring to long-standing criticisms of Chinese manufacturing practices.

His unionized company has been producing campaign items for presidential candidates since 2016, mainly T-shirts and sweatshirts, with all raw materials and manufacturing coming from the US.

Flooding the market

VOA Mandarin Service was unable to find total sales of American-made election items compared to those made in China. But the sheer number of Chinese-made election products for sale on e-commerce platforms including Amazon and eBay shows they are flooding the market.

Tens of thousands of election-themed items have been sold on Temu alone 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 says “All Products Made in the USA,” sells them for ten times that price at $40 each.

Similarly, Temu’s “Kamala Harris 2024” hats can be sold 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 only sell products made in the US on its official websites.

VOA reached out to both campaigns for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

The sharp price contrast highlights the challenges the U.S. faces in reducing its dependence on Chinese products and closing a trade gap known as the de minimis loophole, which allows Chinese companies to move goods worth less than $800 to the US. US can ship 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 “has conducted 21 manufacturing operations in the past 18 months has lost.”

Glass said some NCTO member manufacturers found that sales of campaign products are slower this year than in any previous U.S. election cycle.

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

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

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

Representatives of the U.S. textile industry note the irony of the two U.S. presidential candidates talking tough on trade with China while their own followers buy Chinese-made products to show their support for them.

“If someone supports a candidate because of that candidate’s economic policies and his position on improving our economy and improving our environment and improving our working conditions, and does so by increasing the amount of domestic production, and then “If they buy a product made in a country that represents the opposite, they are actually doing themselves, the candidate and the economy a disservice,” said Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a New York-based clothing company that made more than 300,000 baseball caps for Harris’ campaign.

‘Anyone can make the product’

Cahn notes that anyone can produce campaign products because the campaigns have no control over their intellectual property. They think that “it is more valuable to them to have someone wear the name of the campaign on their head than to make money from selling the merchandise.”

“If everyone can make and sell the product, many products will end up being made in China because there are just not many manufacturers here,” he told VOA Mandarin.

The Associated Press reported on October 18 that thousands of Donald Trump’s ‘God Bless America’ Bibles had been printed in China. The AP also noted that most Bibles, not just the Trump-backed ones, are made in China.

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

“In recent (election) years, this would have been a scandal,” said Marc Zdanow, political consultant and CEO of Engage Voters US. “I think Trump voters just don’t care. … I think 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, professor of business administration and global management at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, told VOA Mandarin that the impact of Chinese-made goods on the U.S. economy is not simply about unilateral job losses in manufacturing. Consumers also get these products at low prices.

“While manufacturing jobs will be lost, it creates opportunities for small businesses to quickly import small quantities using (online Chinese sellers such as) Alibaba to find suppliers who can produce election items quickly and sell them online quickly.”

Tang said the US should develop a manufacturing sector that focuses on high-quality products, rather than cheap products such as US election supplies.