At the time of release, the FTC requested public comment on the proposed guides. As is the case with most U.S. industries, the luggage and leather goods industry has been forced to increase its reliance on foreign materials and components. As the domestic industry has grown smaller, so has its supplier base. Therefore, domestic producers often have no choice but to source certain components off shore, particularly hardware for luggage and certain types of leather.
Foreign goods dominate the market and thousands of U.S. jobs have been lost to imports.
This is because the cost structure of major foreign suppliers of luggage and leather goods is far below our own. Eighty percent of industry products originate in developing countries. Foreign suppliers in these countries utilize very cheap labor and have minimal environmental and workplace standards. If the FTC continues to impose unrealistic country of origin marking requirements, the decline of the U.S. luggage and leather goods industry and its migration off shore will be hastened. Excludes selected period costs, product design, royalties, advertising and sales, shipping and packing, and after sales servicing.