country of origin

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:43 pm

does anyone know what and if there is law regarding stamping country of origin on cutlery brought into the U.S.?

smiling-knife · Post by **smiling-knife** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:52 pm

Hi johnnie. From a historical perspective, foreign producers were required to stamp the country of production on knives imported to the US starting in 1891 as a result of the McKinley Tariff. This included a large import duty on foreign knives which was a critical for the development of the relativly young US knife industry. I don't know if the requirement still exists though.

s-k

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:59 pm

hey s-k, i know about the 1891 tariff law. i am researching (no results) the law or lack of as it exists today. any help you can give will be appreciated. the 1891 adversly affected brittish and german cutlery business but i think the fields are more level now.

jabberwocky · Post by **jabberwocky** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:20 am

jonet143...

I think this site may be helpful in answering your question...

http://www.aftermarket.org/Internationa ... elines.htm

About 1/3 of the way down the page, there's some info regarding NAFTA, and also guidelines for knives, under "Special Marking Requirements". There's also some information further down the page regarding Section 42 of the Trademark Act of 1946. Hope this helps you somewhat.

cj

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:41 am

thanks jabberwocky, according to that, knives must be marked as to country of origin. the parker knives in question seem to have found a loophole. i wonder if they are old stock or "found in vault".

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 2:58 am

jonet143 wrote:thanks jabberwocky, according to that, knives must be marked as to country of origin. the parker knives in question seem to have found a loophole. i wonder if they are old stock or "found in vault".

I've often wondered how they do that.