Berry Amendment: textiles, hand tools and evidence checklist

A Berry-covered textile, such as a tent or a field jacket, has to be domestic down to its fiber and yarn, and a covered hand or measuring tool has to be made or assembled in the United States. There's no percentage tolerance the way there is under the Buy American Act, so a slightly cheaper imported yarn or micrometer can hold a shipment or cause a dispute. Knowing what each clause reaches lets your team ask suppliers the right origin question before the PO goes out.

What is the Berry Amendment?

The Berry Amendment is the law that requires the Department of Defense to buy food, clothing, tents, natural and synthetic fiber products, and hand or measuring tools if they are grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the United States. The requirement sits at 10 U.S.C. 4862 and applies to covered items delivered as end products or components, including commercial products.

Two clauses carry the requirement into a contract. DFARS 252.225-7012 covers food, clothing, tents and the fiber and fabric products. DFARS 252.225-7015 covers hand or measuring tools, which must be produced in the United States or its outlying areas. Both clauses go into a solicitation once DoD's own acquisition passes a dollar threshold, covered below, unless an exception applies.

Is there a component cost test under the Berry Amendment?

No. Berry carries no percentage-of-cost or percentage-of-weight test, unlike the Buy American Act. A covered fiber, fabric or garment must be domestic whether it ships as the end item or as a component buried inside one, unless a specific exception applies, such as fiber or yarn built into a non-textile end product. DFARS 252.225-7012(a)-(b); 10 U.S.C. 4862(b).

What Berry covers and where it must be made

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Table of Berry Amendment item categories against the U.S. production requirement and the implementing clause. Food, clothing and its materials and components, tents and structural components, tarpaulins, covers, cotton and other natural fiber products, woven silk or silk blends, spun silk yarn for cartridge cloth, synthetic or coated synthetic fabric, canvas products, wool, and individual equipment made from those fibers all require grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the United States under DFARS 252.225-7012 and 10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1). Hand or measuring tools require produced in the United States or its outlying areas under the separate clause DFARS 252.225-7015 and 10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(2). U.S. flags must be manufactured in the United States, including the flag's own materials and components, under DFARS 252.225-7006(b) and 4862(b)(5). A footer row notes that stainless steel flatware and dinnerware are covered by statute (4862(b)(3)-(4)) from 2026-01-01 to their repeal on 2029-01-01 but have no implementing DFARS clause yet, and that specialty metals moved to their own statute, 10 U.S.C. 4863, with a melt-and-produce test that varies by clause: DFARS 252.225-7008 requires the United States or its outlying areas, and 252.225-7009 also accepts a qualifying country, both different from this table's grown/reprocessed/reused/produced test.

Item category	U.S. requirement	Clause	Statute
Food	Grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the U.S. (with a food-manufactured exception; see exceptions)	DFARS 252.225-7012	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1)(A)
Clothing and its materials and components (excludes sensors, electronics and other non-textile additions)	Grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the U.S.	DFARS 252.225-7012	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1)(B)
Tents and structural components, tarpaulins, covers	Grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the U.S.	DFARS 252.225-7012	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1)(C)
Cotton and other natural fiber products, woven silk or silk blends, spun silk yarn for cartridge cloth, synthetic or coated synthetic fabric, canvas products, wool	Grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the U.S.	DFARS 252.225-7012	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1)(D)
Individual equipment made from or containing those fibers, yarns, fabrics or materials	Grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the U.S.	DFARS 252.225-7012	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1)(E)
Hand or measuring tools	Produced in the U.S. or its outlying areas	DFARS 252.225-7015	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(2)
U.S. flags	Manufactured in the U.S., including the flag's materials and components	DFARS 252.225-7006	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(5)
Stainless steel flatware and dinnerware (statute covers 2026-01-01 to 2029-01-01 repeal; no DFARS clause yet)	Not yet implemented	None yet	10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(3)-(4)
Specialty metals (not covered in this lesson)	Varies by clause: 252.225-7008 requires the U.S. or its outlying areas; 252.225-7009 also accepts a qualifying country. See DFARS specialty metals.	DFARS 252.225-7008 / 252.225-7009	10 U.S.C. 4863

Food, clothing and its materials and components, tents and their structural components, tarpaulins and covers, cotton and other natural fiber products, woven silk, spun silk yarn for cartridge cloth, synthetic or coated synthetic fabric, canvas products and wool all carry the same test. 10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1). Sensors and electronics added to a garment don't have to be domestic, but the garment's own textiles still do. 10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(1)(B). U.S. flags have their own test: manufactured in the United States, including the flag's materials and components. DFARS 252.225-7006(b); DFARS 225.7002-1(b). The statute exempts flag purchases of $10,000 or less; DFARS sets its own small-purchase exception at $200,000. 10 U.S.C. 4862(h)(2); DFARS 225.7002-3(c). Stainless steel flatware and dinnerware are also covered by statute from 2026-01-01 until repeal on 2029-01-01, though DFARS hasn't implemented it yet. 10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(3)-(5); DFARS 252.225-7006. Specialty metals moved out of this statute to their own section, now covered in DFARS specialty metals, under different melt-and-produce clauses.

Do hand and measuring tools follow the same rule?

Yes, but under a different clause. Hand and measuring tools sit in the Berry statute at 10 U.S.C. 4862(b)(2), the same section as the textile items, but DoD implements them through a separate clause. The requirement is the same one-line test: produced in the United States or its outlying areas. DFARS 252.225-7015.

A contracting officer inserts 252.225-7015 once a solicitation crosses the threshold at DFARS 225.7002-2(a) and calls for hand or measuring tools. DFARS 225.7002-3. The clause carries no domestic-component test of its own; a tool either was produced in the United States or its outlying areas, or it wasn't. PGI 225.7002-1(a)(2).

Does the small-purchase exception depend on my subcontract, or on DoD's contract?

The exception depends on the value of DoD's own contract. DFARS exempts DoD acquisitions of $200,000 or less, a Berry-only figure separate from the $350,000 simplified acquisition threshold. Once DoD's acquisition exceeds $200,000, every covered component in the delivered items must be domestic, whatever each subcontract is worth. DFARS 225.7002-2(a).

The statute still prints $150,000, fixed by the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which decoupled the figure from the simplified acquisition threshold and let the Secretary of Defense adjust it for inflation every five years. 10 U.S.C. 4862(h)(1) and (h)(3). DFARS Case 2024-D002 raised it to $200,000, effective October 1, 2025. 90 FR 41483, August 25, 2025.

Once DoD's own acquisition crosses $200,000, the clause travels with the covered item through every tier below it. For example, a $30,000 cloth order under a $2 million DoD contract still has to meet the requirement; there's no separate small-purchase pass at the subcontract level. DFARS 252.225-7012(b); 10 U.S.C. 4862(i).

Which exceptions still apply?

Several narrow exceptions apply: a documented nonavailability finding, combat purchases made outside the United States, food or hand tools for a contingency operation or an urgent buy, a small share of incidental natural fiber, and a few qualifying-country items. None of them excuses ordinary cost or lead-time pressure.

A domestic nonavailability determination needs a written finding from the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, a service secretary or the DLA Director, plus a public synopsis within 7 days of award. DFARS 225.7002-2(b); 10 U.S.C. 4862(c),(k). The combat exception covers only purchases made outside the United States in support of combat operations. DFARS 225.7002-2(d); 10 U.S.C. 4862(d)(1). Food and hand or measuring tools bought for a contingency operation, or under urgent non-competitive procedures, are excepted too, with no abroad-only limit, though textiles for a contingency operation remain covered. DFARS 225.7002-2(f); 10 U.S.C. 4862(d)(1),(d)(4).

Food manufactured or processed in the U.S. is excepted regardless of where its ingredients were grown, except seafood. DFARS 225.7002-2(l); DFARS 252.225-7012(c)(4),(d). Incidental cotton, other natural fiber or wool in an end product is excepted only if the fiber's estimated value is no more than 10 percent of the end product's price and no more than $200,000. DFARS 225.7002-2(j).

A separate exception covers fibers and yarns for synthetic or coated synthetic fabric. They qualify if the fabric becomes a component of a non-textile end product, from any country. Para-aramid fiber and continuous-filament yarn made in a qualifying country qualify alone, as does qualifying-country chemical warfare protective clothing. DFARS 225.7002-2(m),(n); DFARS 252.225-7012(c)(5),(c)(6).

How is Berry different from the Buy American Act and the Trade Agreements Act?

Berry has no cost or transformation test. For a DoD buy of Berry-covered textiles, Buy American and the Trade Agreements Act usually don't apply, because the contracting officer leaves out the Buy American clause and DoD's trade-agreement coverage excludes clothing, tents and hand tools.

Berry vs Buy American vs Trade Agreements Act on a DoD contract

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Comparison matrix of three domestic-preference rules as DoD applies them, across four dimensions: test, threshold, component rule and clause. The Berry Amendment uses a grown-reprocessed-reused-or-produced test with no component cost percentage, a $200,000 threshold measured on DoD's own acquisition under DFARS 225.7002-2(a), and clauses DFARS 252.225-7012 and 252.225-7015. The Buy American Act, applied through DFARS 252.225-7001 rather than the civilian FAR 52.225-1, counts a qualifying-country component as domestic, exempts COTS items from the component test, requires a domestic or qualifying-country component cost of 65 percent for end products delivered in 2024 through 2028 rising to 75 percent from 2029, and is left out of a solicitation once Berry already requires a domestic end product for every line item (the exception being hand tools). The Trade Agreements Act, applied through DFARS 252.225-7021 rather than the civilian FAR 52.225-5, accepts a qualifying-country end product in addition to U.S.-made or designated-country end products, and reaches only the product groups listed at DFARS 225.401-70, a shorter list than the civilian clause that excludes most textiles, clothing and hand tools.

Rule	Test	Threshold	Component rule	Clause
Berry Amendment	Grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the U.S. (hand tools: produced in the U.S. or its outlying areas)	$200,000, measured on DoD's own acquisition, not a subcontract	No cost or weight percentage; covered content must be domestic outright, subject only to narrow exceptions	DFARS 252.225-7012 / 252.225-7015
Buy American Act (DoD)	Manufactured in the U.S. and domestic component cost clears the required percentage	Left out of the solicitation once Berry already requires a domestic end product for every line item (except hand tools)	65% domestic + qualifying-country component cost for items delivered 2024-2028, rising to 75% from 2029; COTS items exempt	DFARS 252.225-7001
Trade Agreements Act (DoD)	U.S.-made, qualifying-country or designated-country end product	Applies only to the product groups listed at DFARS 225.401-70	None; accepts a qualifying-country end product, which the civilian clause does not	DFARS 252.225-7021

DoD uses its own clauses instead of the civilian FAR ones. DFARS 252.225-7001 replaces FAR 52.225-1, and DFARS 252.225-7021 replaces FAR 52.225-5. DFARS 225.1101(2)(i),(6). Unlike the civilian clause, 252.225-7001 counts a qualifying-country component as domestic. FAR 52.225-1 also exempts COTS items from the component test, so that part isn't a difference. FAR 25.100(a)(5). A contracting officer leaves it out of a Berry-covered textile buy, since Subpart 225.70 already requires a domestic end product, but keeps it for hand tools, where it requires only U.S. manufacture. DFARS 225.1101(2)(i). DoD's trade-agreement clause, 252.225-7021, reaches a shorter list of product groups than the civilian FAR clause. DFARS 225.401-70.

A torque wrench assembled in the United States can meet the Berry hand-tool clause and still fail Buy American under 252.225-7001 if too few of its components are domestic or from a qualifying country. PGI 225.7002-1(a)(2)(D). TAA-compliant bedding (FSG 72) isn't necessarily Berry-compliant. Where Berry applies, DoD leaves the TAA clause out. DFARS 225.1101(6)(v)(A). Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act cover how each test works on its own.

Does Berry flow down to subcontractors?

Yes, in effect. The clause has no flowdown paragraph, but it requires the prime to deliver covered items that are domestic whether they are end products or components, so the prime has to buy compliant material and write the requirement into its purchase orders for covered items. The statute applies to subcontracts for commercial products too. DFARS 252.225-7012(b); 10 U.S.C. 4862(i).

A prime buying covered fabric from a distributor, who buys yarn from a mill, who buys fiber from a grower, still has to trace the requirement to the fiber's own origin. A distributor's customs country-of-origin statement answers a different question and doesn't establish Berry compliance. Certificate of conformance covers getting a supplier's own statement on file, and traceability to raw materials covers tracing the requirement across tiers.

What evidence should you collect from textile and tool suppliers?

Ask for the country where each stage happened, beyond a bare country-of-origin statement. For textiles, that means where the fiber was grown, spun into yarn, woven or knit into fabric, and cut and sewn. For tools, it means where the tool itself was produced or assembled, since the clause reaches no further upstream.

A mill certificate or a cut-and-sew facility's statement usually covers only its own stage, so ask each supplier to name its own stage; one blanket declaration from the distributor doesn't cover the chain. Record the answer per lot or run, since sourcing can change between orders. Where a supplier can't answer, record the gap; silence isn't compliance. Hold the item until it's closed or the contracting officer confirms an exception applies.

Your team can open each request as a task and hand it to Scout Agent, who follows up with the supplier by email and phone. Berry gaps often sit at the handoff between tiers, such as a mill that doesn't know its fiber grower, or a distributor that can't say where a tool was assembled; reassembling an abroad-made tool in the United States doesn't make it U.S.-produced. PGI 225.7002-1(a)(2)(B).

Questions teams ask

Is a supplier's country-of-origin statement enough for Berry?

No. Country of origin for trade purposes reflects where an item was last substantially transformed, the same test the Trade Agreements Act uses. Berry asks about the growing, reprocessing, reuse or production of the covered material itself, a different and usually earlier question. DFARS 252.225-7012(b).

Can a supplier in an allied country satisfy Berry the way it can satisfy the Buy American Act?

Only for the qualifying-country exceptions: para-aramid fiber and yarn, and chemical warfare protective clothing. Ordinary clothing, tents and hand tools from an allied country don't qualify, even though they would under DoD's Buy American rules. Synthetic or coated synthetic fiber and yarn built into a non-textile end product's fabric can come from any country, not only a qualifying one. DFARS 225.7002-2(m),(n); DFARS 252.225-7012(c)(5),(c)(6).

Does Berry apply to commercial off-the-shelf textiles?

Yes. The statute reaches covered items delivered as end products or components, including commercial products, so a COTS tent or garment still has to meet the domestic-production test. 10 U.S.C. 4862(i).

If your team is tracing textile and tool origins ahead of a Berry-covered award, talk to our team about chasing stage-by-stage origin answers from suppliers.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check how the rules apply to your business with your legal or tax advisor.

Sources (17)

1. 10 U.S.C. 4862, Requirement to buy certain articles from American sources; exceptions
2. DFARS 252.225-7012, Preference for Certain Domestic Commodities
3. DFARS 225.7002-1, Restrictions
4. DFARS 252.225-7015, Restriction on Acquisition of Hand or Measuring Tools
5. DFARS 225.7002-2, Exceptions
6. DFARS 225.7002-3, Contract clauses
7. PGI 225.7002-1, Restrictions
8. DFARS 252.225-7006, Acquisition of the American Flag
9. DFARS 225.1101, Acquisition of supplies
10. DFARS 225.401-70, End products subject to trade agreements
11. DFARS 225.401, Exceptions
12. DFARS 252.225-7001, Buy American and Balance of Payments Program
13. FAR 25.100, Scope of subpart
14. DFARS 252.225-7021, Trade Agreements
15. Federal Register 2025-16205, DFARS Case 2024-D002, Inflation Adjustment of Acquisition-Related Thresholds (90 FR 41483, effective October 1, 2025)
16. Federal Register 2026-12825, DFARS Case 2024-D013, proposed rule (91 FR 38386, June 25, 2026)
17. DFARS 252.225-7009, Restriction on Acquisition of Certain Articles Containing Specialty Metals