Interest revives in Notre Dame's 'made in China' ban

[douglas9]

The University of Notre Dame’s campus bookstore sells “Fighting Irish” lettermen jackets, “ND” license plate frames and stadium cups picturing the school’s leprechaun mascot. Not for sale: anything made in China. Ten years after adopting the policy, Notre Dame remains the only major U.S. university that forbids license holders such as Adidas AG to put the school logo on any product from China, according to groups that track college merchandising.

Notre Dame prohibits the goods because China, the top source of U.S. imports, doesn’t permit independent labor unions, according to a college policy document. The ban is attracting fresh attention from Washington lawmakers who say China has begun a renewed crackdown on dissidents.

“What Notre Dame is doing is very, very important,” U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees trade, said in an interview. “China is a particularly bad place to do outsourcing, and the American people are totally opposed to it.”

Wolf said he will press Virginia universities to impose a similar ban and ask colleagues in Congress to get their constituent groups to follow the lead of Notre Dame.


http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/sbt-interest-revives-in-notre-dames-made-in-china-ban-20110518,0,1401914,full.story