It is interesting that "made in the USA" is now taken as a symbol of good quality. I am enough of a geezer that I can remember when nearly everything available for sale was domestically produced. Some of it was junk. Marketers then spun imported goods as exotic and high quality.

Poor quality knows no borders. Thankfully, neither does high quality.

In terms of quality and utility once a nation develops beyond past a minimum level of technical competence it doesn't seem to matter where things are made.

Japan in the 50s was known for cheap trinkets. Quality has all been up since then. Italy went through the same progression but more slowly. In the 70s there were a lot of shoddy metal products from India.

From the late 80s on manufacturing facilities have been made more modular, standardized and far easier to pick up and move. The plants produce a wide variety of products and change up by simply changing the programming. As long as minimum technical standards are maintained quality is largely independent on the nationality of the hands working the controls.

Now virtually any nation can produce useless trash or high quality. Just a matter of materials and standards used. It is almost as hard to produce useless junk that is hard to unload as it is to produce a quality product that sells itself. Because of this the average standard of quality is pretty good and is constantly improving.

Present situation excluded....