Don't bet that the toothpicks are actually made in China. I don't know if it's still done this way but the Japanese plywood manufacturers used to buy lumber on the West Coast, load it onto their ships and go out to International Water. They would then cut the logs to the appropriate length, strip them, shave and trim the layers and glue them into sheets before cutting to final size. They bundled the finished product and brought it back to the US, selling to the distributors here. Since it wasn't "Made in Japan", the duties and tariffs were different, until the FTC caught on. Look around- a lot of building materials aren't made here. Plywood, dimensional lumber, etc is often made in Central or South America. We can't cut enough trees to feed the demand for lumber.
