Kingsfield · Research · International Trade & Sanctions

Do imported goods have to be marked with their country of origin?

Published 2026-06-23 · U.S. federal law

Section 1304 requires that every article of foreign origin imported into the United States be marked to indicate to the ultimate purchaser the English name of the country of origin.

The answer

The marking duty

19 U.S.C. § 1304 requires that every article of foreign origin (or its container) imported into the United States be marked conspicuously, legibly, and permanently with the English name of the country of origin, in a manner that indicates origin to the ultimate purchaser.

Marking duties for failure

When an article is not properly marked at the time of importation and is not exported or destroyed, the statute provides for an additional marking duty equal to ten percent of the article's value unless the article is properly marked or the failure is otherwise resolved.

The judged input

What the AI drafted

Submitted to the judge

This is an excerpt from a draft customs and tariffs opinion — the kind of work product a lawyer generates with a legal-AI drafting tool, then has to stand behind. Kingsfield does not write it; it rules on the citations the model put in it. This draft cites two authorities; one of them is wrong.

AI draft excerpt — customs and tariffs opinion

The Company's imported consumer goods must bear country-of-origin marking before they reach U.S. retail buyers. Under 19 U.S.C. § 1304, every article of foreign origin must be marked to indicate to the ultimate purchaser the English name of the country of origin. The Company asserts that the marking obligation arises instead from 19 U.S.C. § 1484, the country-of-origin marking statute. We advise correcting that premise before the next entry.

The judge ruled on every citation as the draft used it — it accepted 19 U.S.C. § 1304 and rejected 19 U.S.C. § 1484. Here is why.

The verdict

How Kingsfield ruled

Ruled 2026-06-23

Each citation in the draft above was submitted to the Kingsfield judge and ruled against the primary-law corpus — Accept, Reject, or Inconclusive, per citation. These are live verdicts, not editorial. Each card shows the claim the draft made and the verbatim authority the verdict was rendered against.

Accept19 U.S.C. § 1304

The draft claimed: Every article of foreign origin imported into the United States must be marked to indicate to the ultimate purchaser the English name of the country of origin.

“§ 1304 Except as hereinafter provided, every article of foreign origin (or its container, as provided in subsection (b) hereof) imported into the United States shall be marked in a conspicuous place as legibly, indelibly, and permanently as the nature of the article (or container) will permit in such manner as to indicate to an ultimate purchaser in…”

Cite found; proposition supported by the cited text.

Reject19 U.S.C. § 1484

The draft claimed: Section 1484 is the statute requiring imported articles to be marked with the English name of the country of origin for the ultimate purchaser.

Cite found, but the cited text does not support the claim. 19 U.S.C. 1484 governs entry of merchandise and the importer's documentation duties, not origin marking; the marking requirement is at 19 U.S.C. 1304. Regenerate with the correct authority.

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This page is legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The draft shown is an illustration of a typical AI answer; verdicts reflect the cited authority in the Kingsfield corpus as of the ruling date shown above.