Senate committee passes online country-of-origin-labeling Act

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation recently passed, with overwhelming bipartisan support, Senator Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) COOL Online Act, which was added as an amendment to the Endless Frontier Act (S. 1260). The bipartisan COOL Online Act would mandate that country-of-origin labeling be clearly and conspicuously stated in any website description of a product. This would protect Americans’ right to know where the products they buy are made.

Under current U.S. law, a product’s external packaging must state its country of origin. However, e-commerce has made distinguishing an item’s place of origin more difficult. Websites often do not display the country-of-origin for a product since labeling laws were written before the advent of internet shopping.

Last month, The coalition for a Prosperous America highlighted how hundreds of millions of dollars worth of copycat goods and stolen intellectual property are coming in from China as American consumers continue to shop online, with their orders going directly to Chinese manufacturers.

“CPA was proud to support Senator Baldwin and her colleagues for introducing this important legislation in the last Congress,” said Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA. “We applaud the Senate Commerce Committee for passing this important bill that will help consumers learn where the products they purchase on the Internet are made. For too long, countries like China have sold counterfeit, unsafe, and shoddy goods to unwitting Americans. By requiring online country-of-origin-labeling, U.S. consumers will have more information to find quality, American-made products.”

CPA strongly supports the COOL bill, particularly in light of growing consumer interest in buying domestically produced items. The new bill would mandate a prominent country-of-origin description for all products sold online as well as clear disclosure of the country in which the seller of the product is located.

You can read more about the CPA report at https://prosperousamerica.org/ustr-counterfeit-imports-review-china/.