New Delhi, March 16 -- Where is a Toyota Camry or iPhone made? There is a label that identifies the country in which the final product assembly takes place, but it says nothing about where the product is actually 'made.' It is unable to do so because for goods that have inputs (material or intellectual) that are traded across international borders, the answer is never a single country.

It is estimated that a car has some 30,000 parts (counting everything from its engine block to nuts and bolts). The firm that provides a car's marque (like Dodge or Toyota) manufactures only a fraction of these parts in plants spread around the world.

Several intermediate parts like tires, windshields, seats and mirrors, plus hundreds of smaller items, in...