INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
The off-road accessory was shipped in a box emblazoned with the logo of an
auto parts brand owned by Mike Braun, a multimillionaire businessman who
often rails against foreign outsourcing in his bid to become Indiana’s next
senator.
The words “Made in
China” were stamped across the packaging.
Braun frequently
criticizes his opponent, vulnerable red-state Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly,
for once owning stock in a family business his brother runs that operates a
factory in Mexico. However, the Republican nominee’s own parts brand,
Promaxx Automotive, sells products that were similarly manufactured abroad,
according to a review by The Associated Press.
It has been well
documented that Braun’s national auto parts distribution company, Meyer
Distributing, ships and sells other companies’ goods that are made outside
of the U.S. Such practice doesn’t leave him vulnerable to charges of
hypocrisy, he argues, because as a distributor he only resells the parts and
has no control over where the companies make them.
But the revelation
about the Chinese origin of much of his own products line, which Meyer
trademarked with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, draws into question
some of Braun’s statements on the campaign trail, where he seldom - if ever
- mentions Promaxx.
Braun’s campaign
would not say what percentage of Promaxx parts are made in America.
Spokesman Josh Kelley issued a statement Thursday suggesting it was a
distraction from “Donnelly’s record of profiting from outsourcing.”
When the subject
came up during a GOP debate in February, Braun said: “I deal with American
manufacturers. We buy their products. I don’t know where they get them
made.”
“My business is
never involved in anything overseas other than some of the companies that we
distribute their products,” he said in December at a GOP breakfast in
Bloomington, Indiana.
While it’s
difficult to tell where many of the Braun’s Promaxx products are
manufactured, the AP was able to trace some accessories sold under the
brand.
To do so, the AP
purchased from Amazon one of Braun’s brand of winches, a device used to pull
stuck 4x4 vehicles out of the mud. The box that arrived was labeled “Made in
China” in several places on the accessory and packaging.
Numerous other
products, including running boards and a specialized Jeep hood, were
similarly listed as manufactured in China on websites that retail Promaxx
goods, including Amazon, CARiD and eBay.
The AP also used
unique UPC codes assigned to more than 50 Promaxx products to determine
which suppliers Braun uses. That information was compared with data
maintained by Panjiva, a website that tracks global trade, to determine
where those companies procured their goods.
Among the findings:
- Running boards,
bumpers, brush guards and truck racks listed in the Promaxx catalog were
supplied by Westin Automotive, which has received more than 700 shipments of
such products from China since 2007. While several items in the company’s
catalog were labeled as made in America, these products were not. Panjiva
records also show Chinese shipments of these accessories were delivered to
one of Braun’s warehouses in Arlington, Texas, including one made this past
June.
- Another Promaxx
supplier, California-based CYC Engineering, has received more than 400
shipments of similar products from Chinese manufacturers over the last
decade.
- Bulldog Winch
Co., a supplier Braun uses for off-road recovery equipment, has received
hundreds of thousands of pounds of winches and accessory imports from China.
Braun’s own company has also received about a half dozen shipments of
winches and winch accessories in recent years from one of the same Chinese
manufacturers, Panjiva records show. The winch purchased by AP was shipped
from Braun’s company headquarters in Jasper, Indiana.
Since launching his
campaign last August, Braun has tried to follow President Donald Trump’s
playbook, running as an “outsider” while making his business success central
in his pitch to voters. Also, like the president, whose own line of
Trump-branded products was often sourced from overseas, Braun has downplayed
his company’s use of foreign-made goods.
When the two
congressmen he was running against in the Republican primary, Todd Rokita
and Luke Messer, went after him for his companies’ practices, Braun
counterattacked.
In one ad he ran
during the primary, he accused Donnelly, Messer and Rokita of supporting, or
benefiting from, trade policies that put “Mexico before Muncie” and “Beijing
before Bloomington.”
As Donnelly and his
allies have sought to turn the focus to Braun’s businesses, he has fought
back, accusing the Democrat of “lying” about his companies, while insisting
that they are “made in America.”
Kelley, the
campaign spokesman, said Braun creates American jobs, adding that 95 percent
of his suppliers are American companies. However, that doesn’t address where
those companies that supply the Promaxx brand are getting their goods.
Experts say it’s
not just normal for manufacturers to rely on supply chains that include at
least some foreign goods - they say it’s unusual when companies don’t.
“It’s amazing how
companies and organizations have global supply chains no matter how small,”
said Mohan V. Tatikonda, an Indiana University business school professor who
specializes in supply chain management. “There are companies that do not
know who is making their stuff because you have to go so deep into the
supply chain that you would need an audit.”
University of
Evansville political science professor Robert Dion said most voters probably
don’t care where Braun’s gets his parts.
But, he added,
there’s a catch: “If you’re going to say one thing and do another, that
becomes a problem.”
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