Internet Shopping Country of origin

[thereisonlyoneofme]

Once again I have purchased something on line which turns out to have been made in China. I try to avoid buying things from there because of the human rights situation and also, selfishly because things dont last.
Why isnt it mandatory for it to be stated on the website where the goods are manufactured. I buy from firms selling from the UK but just received a leather watch strap made in China. Firms are mad about you returning goods for this reason so I usually have to keep them.

I hear you! Hate hate hate buying from China too, for the same reasons.

I have found a couple of websites that gather stuff made in the UK (as I also have a problem with air/sea miles, but they’re mostly luxury goods, or nice to have but not essential stuff like artworks, stationery, etc.

www.madeinbritain.org/

makeitbritish.co.uk/

thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk/

I’ve only bought from the third one so far, and the website was horribly slow, but the stuff (candles, greetings cards, glassware) were all gorgeous.

While I agree with you OP, chances are that most of us will be accessing Mumsnet with devices that were made in China or at least part-made there.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_China

Ebay and Amazon seem to be deliberately making it hard to tell where things are coming from. Some sellers claim to have a UK VAT number but be based in China - I've seen allegations that some of these are just made up.

Given the massive amount of fraud endemic in Ltd Company registrations (mini umbrella etc) it obvious the UK government couldn't care less.

Unfortunately for quite a few items I buy I can't find a made in UK version and even ordering from a UK company outside of EBay or Amazon just means they imported it from China first.