WASHINGTON — As the United States presidential election enters its final phase, more and more voters are expressing support for their favored candidate by wearing election merchandise.
What they may not realize is that the “Make America Great Again” Trump hat or “Childless Cat Lady for Harris” T-shirt they’re wearing quite possibly was made in China.
With the help of e-commerce platforms, Chinese traders are flooding the market for U.S. election merchandise with cheap goods. Anecdotal evidence suggests U.S. makers of these products are struggling to compete.
“I think the amount of stuff on Amazon and Etsy that’s coming from China and other countries in cargo ships and unloaded on American shores is drastically impacting American manufacturers’, like myself, ability to compete and grow our own business. I think it’s dramatic,” said Ben Waxman, founder and co-owner of American Roots, an American apparel company.
Waxman wouldn’t share production or profit figures with VOA Mandarin Service because of privacy concerns, but he did say his U.S.-made campaign T-shirts, for example, sell for about $15 each, while those on Chinese online retailer Temu can sell for as little as $3.
“It’s more expensive when you pay higher wages, living wages, and abide by environmental standards,” Waxman said, referring to long-standing criticisms of China’s manufacturing practices.
His unionized company has been producing campaign merchandise for presidential candidates since 2016, mainly T-shirts and sweatshirts, with all raw materials and production sourced within the U.S.
Flooding the market
VOA Mandarin Service was unable to find total sales figures for made-in-America election merchandise versus made-in-China ones. But the massive number of Chinese-made election products for sale on e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and eBay, show they are flooding the market.
On Temu alone, tens of thousands of election-themed items have been sold at a fraction of the price of the official campaigns’ versions.
Among them, a “Make America Great Again” hat costs less than $4, while the official Trump campaign store website, which boasts “All Products Made in the USA,” sells them for 10 times that price at $40 each.
Likewise, Temu’s “Kamala Harris 2024” hats can sell for less than $3 each, while the official Kamala Harris campaign store website sells “Kamala” hats for $47 each.
The Harris campaign also vowed to only sell products made in the U.S. on its official websites.
VOA asked both campaigns for comment but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.
The stark contrast in prices highlights the challenges the U.S. faces in reducing its dependence on Chinese products and closing a trade loophole, known as the de minimis loophole, that allows Chinese companies to ship goods worth less than $800 to the U.S. without paying import duties.
Kim Glas, president and CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations, a labor union-aligned organization, said abuse of the de minimis loophole is rampant, adding that her group “lost 21 manufacturing operations over the last 18 months.”
Glas said some of NCTO’s member manufacturers found 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 comments on the volume of presidential campaign merchandise imported from China on their websites and their regulations of the Chinese vendors but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.
Temu didn’t comment on election product sales in the U.S., but the company’s spokesperson replied in an email to VOA Mandarin, “Temu’s growth isn’t dependent on the de minimis policy. The primary drivers behind our rapid expansion and market acceptance are the supply-chain efficiencies and operational proficiencies we’ve cultivated over the years.”
The spokesperson added, “We are open to and supportive of any policy adjustments made by legislators that align with consumer interests.”
U.S. textile industry representatives note the irony of the two U.S. presidential candidates talking tough on trade with China while their own followers are buying China-made products to show their support for them.
“If someone is supporting a candidate because of that candidate’s economic policy and their position toward improving our economy and improving our environment and improving our labor conditions, and doing so by increasing the amount of domestic manufacturing, and then they’re supporting a candidate by buying a product that’s made in a country that stands for the opposite of that, they’re actually doing themselves and the candidate and the economy a disservice,” said Mitch Cahn, president of Unionwear, a New York-based apparel company that has supplied more than 300,000 baseball caps to Harris’ campaign.
‘Anybody can make the product’
Cahn notes that anyone can produce campaign products because the campaigns don’t control their intellectual property. They think “it’s more valuable for them to have a person wear the campaign’s name on their head than it is to make money from selling the merchandise.”
“When anybody can make the product and sell it, a lot of the products are going to end up being made in China because there’s just not a lot of manufacturers here,” he told VOA Mandarin.
The Associated Press reported on October 18 that thousands of Donald Trump’s “God Bless America” Bibles were printed in China. The AP also noted that most Bibles, not just the Trump-backed one, are made in China.
Critics note Trump’s promotion of Made in the USA products could be undermined by the revelation.
“In past [election] years, this would’ve been a scandal,” says Marc Zdanow, a political consultant and CEO of Engage Voters U.S. “I think Trump voters just don’t care. … I guess the question is whether or not this rises to the top for those voters who are still undecided. This issue is certainly one that could be enough to push this group away from Trump.”
Chris Tang, a business administration and global management professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, told VOA Mandarin the impact of merchandise made in China on the U.S. economy is not simply about one-sided manufacturing job losses. Consumers also get these products at low prices.
“While there are job losses in manufacturing, it creates opportunities for small businesses to import small quantities quickly using [online Chinese sellers like] Alibaba to find suppliers to produce election merchandise quickly and sell them online quickly.”
Tang said the U.S. should develop a manufacturing sector that focuses on high-value products, not cheap ones such as U.S. election merchandise.
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