Which is it

Peter Aitken

Actually if the knife blade is stamped "Made In Spain" then the knife blade was made in Spain, but if the package is marked "Made In China" that means the knife was likely buttembled there and probably the handle and rivets were made in China as well. US Customs law is very involved, just as complex as IRS law. Different rules apply to different products and parts of products and percentage of buttembly, etc. If you think Customs law regarding cutlery is involved you need to try interpreting the laws regarding clothing... cotton grown in Egypt, made into cloth in the US, shipped to Bangledesh for cutting-sewing, with buttons from the Philippines, zippers from Japan, shipped back to the US to be embroided, appliqued, beaded, sequined, etc. and finally sold... where was that outfit made?!?!?

I once worked for a customs house broker, I was the one who would present the actual goods to the customs inspectors at the NY airports, every sort of goods imaginable, very interesting job but the pay was awful, because mostly it was labor, transporting, uncrating, recrating. This was the customs broker that first brought in Canoe (line of men's fragrances), I ended up with cases of that stuff. Often animals were involved, for zoos, and circuses... giraffes were interesting to see how they were crated to fit on a cargo plane. I would also take care of transporting the animals to US Quarantine. Once a huge crate of baby pet-shop turtles somehow got loose in a hangar, thousands and thousands of tiny turtles to collect. One night there was a crate of penquins I was transporting on the Joisey turnpike. An butthole trooper stopped me on a routine check and insisted I open the back of the van and when I told him those crates contained penguins destined for a zoo the jerk then insisted I open the crate... the schmuck didn't believe my penquin story... now thinking back I don't really blame him. Do you have any idea what was involved to gather up six rambunctious penguins off the turnpike that were hell bent on racing to the south pole, all traffic had to be stopped and reinforcements called in, lots of fire trucks arrived too, what a night. But my favorite was when food was involved, especially the grand piano sized crate of smoked scottish salmon that arrived each week, Mmmmmm... I think between the customs inspectors and me a few hundred dollars worth got consumed each week... hey, we had to inspect carefully

Sheldon