Hmm
To me country of origin is extremely important. I absolutely will not own a gun made in china, Pakistan, Korea, or really any of the Asian countries. Each country to me has its own spot in my mind for level of quality in products produced. For me it would go something like this, top quality up top, lower quality at bottom
Switzerland (owned a k31)
Germany (own a Walther ppq, plus they are renowned for their quality from mausers to H&Ks)
Belgium (fn fals, hi powers)
Austria (original glocks, and steyrs)
Czech republic (czs are great)
USA (Dan wessons, older S&W's, ww2 era rifles, older colts)
Finland (their version of mosins are fine, accurate rifles)
Egypt (fine quality aks, and hakims and rasheeds)
Poland (very nice aks and their pistols are nicely made)
Bulgaria (very nice AKS)
Russia (sometimes crude, but don't ever malfunction, besides all of russias money goes into their military. They are very serious about their military and their weapons. My Russian AK is very high quality for the price paid)
Yugoslavia (pretty nice pistols and rifles, have had a yugo sks)
Romania (their AKs are pretty decent, their pistols (tokarev) is decent as well)
Spain (have heard good things about stars and astras, and bersas are nice)
China (most people have good experiences, I just hate china with a passion)
India (their enfields were ehhh)
Pakistan (junk)
Any country I didn't list I don't have enough knowledge or experience with their guns or weapons to make a judgement. Quality has to do with material used, design, engineering, and manufacturing accuracy. I believe that Germany uses better steel, and generally cares more about quality/accuracy of manufacture than the united States or other similar countries, but you have Holland & Holland in Britain who has been making fine dangerous game and hunting rifles for hundreds of years