in the early 1990's some u.s. companies tried it. one i remember their planes they made but i cannot remember their name. i think they were out of ohio. they took well known kits and built and covered them and sold them as arfs. a local hobby dealer in my area sold them. he got several in his store believing they would sell. but they were very expensive!!. but the workmanship was excellent. one in particular was a .60 sig king kobra packaged as a arf. it sold for $275.00. that was a lot of money for a arf back then.
another one i remember was a company out of arizona. they used the old "sure flight" all foam kits and they glassed them and put a very nice paint job on them and sold them as arfs.. i remember their ads in the model magizines but again they were very expensive. neither company was in buisness very long. to build arfs here in the us would be a very risky and costly venture and with eguipment, labor and material costs you would not be able to manufacture them for what we pay for them now. just my opinion.