I believe a two-way all-out trade war (or block) with China would definitely be in our favor. See Trade in Goods (Imports, Exports and Trade Balance) with China.
It would definitely narrow the US-global trade deficit. Also, our economy would learn to be more self-reliant. It would surely send quite a shake-up through our economy for a spell. But would in the long term leave us stronger. With a quarter trillion dollars annually remaining in the US economy we would see a lot of skyrocketing in banking, savings, home sales/ownership as well as folks buying and selling more American products and services. Not to mention that we would be doing more business with countries whose products and services we can trust.
Plus, we would experience increased tax revenues across the board. Of course, the list could go on, on and on.
As for origin labeling of food products. I believe American consumers would welcome origin labeling (or "additional noise" on crowded packaging). It would be labeling that everyone could understand.
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General discussion
Food safety in the US and in China
Losing the taste for China's delicacies
In the week that China executed the man once responsible for ensuring the safety of China's food and drugs, Fuhsia Dunlop, an expert on Chinese cuisine, finds tainted food has blunted her appetite.
Different kind of qualm
When I first lived in China, I found sea cucumbers revolting, and ate them just to be polite.
Now, though, after years of applying myself to the Chinese arts of eating, I understand the pleasure of having something slithery and bouncy in my mouth.
It is the same with many other Chinese delicacies.
Goose intestines, frogs, insects, ducks' tongues: I have eaten and enjoyed them all. But although I have lost my European squeamishness, I find my dining out in China increasingly beset by a different kind of qualm.
Chinese restaurants are the engine driving a global trade in endangered species. And in China, there is a thriving black market in all kinds of supposedly protected animals.
I am offered them all the time, even at banquets attended by the very Communist Party and government officials who are meant to be enforcing environmental laws.
Pollution
My appetite is also shrinking because of the dire pollution in China.
Earlier this month government inspectors found paraffin wax, formaldehyde and other illegal additives being used in the production of everyday foodstuffs like biscuits and seafood.
And the United States turned back more than 100 shipments of Chinese food products in a single month this spring, after finding them laced with banned chemicals and antibiotics.
My friends in China are increasingly worried about the food they eat.
Many mutter darkly about the use of hormones in rearing livestock, and they seek out vegetables that have insect bites on their leaves - a sign that they have not been drenched in pesticides.
On my own trips to China, I eat less and less meat and seafood, because I just do not know what is in them.
Corruption
Of course, pollution, tainted food and the consumption of endangered species are international problems.
But in China the media is state-controlled, environmental activists are routinely harassed, and corruption is endemic.
The government is taking the nation's environmental crisis increasingly seriously, largely because of the threat of social unrest triggered by pollution.
But although the former head of the Chinese Food and Drug Administration has been executed for taking bribes, many local officials still disregard rules on environmental protection, and Beijing itself is said to have tried to cover up a World Bank report revealing that more than 700,000 people die every year in China because of air and water pollution.
Second Article... in the US. BTW, this second article is not intended as a political commentary but only as a counterpoint to the article discussing food safety in China. China being of special concern since we do get many food stuffs from that country. Also, something I just found out is that many of the ingredients for vitamins come from Chinese companies as well.
Food-labeling effort gains new momentum
WASHINGTON - Shoppers are in the dark about where much of their food comes from despite a five-year-old law requiring meat and other products to carry labels with their country of origin.
That soon may change. Reports of tainted seafood from China have raised consumer awareness about the safety of imported food and many of the law's most powerful opponents have left Congress.
"The political dynamic is such that there's just no getting around it," said Colin Woodall, director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The livestock group has opposed a mandatory labeling program.
The Agriculture Department never put in place the labeling requirement because then-majority Republicans repeatedly delayed it, most recently to 2008.
The law's leading opponents are grocery stores and large meatpacking companies, many of whom mix U.S. and Mexican beef, along with other businesses involved in getting products to supermarket shelves. They say the tracking and the paperwork needed to comply with the law is too burdensome and would cause them to raise prices.
The labeling program was not delayed for seafood. The former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, wanted it to promote his state's lucrative fishing industry.
Congress plans hearings this week on whether the Food and Drug Administration can ensure the safety of the nation's food supply.
In the wake of increased U.S. complaints about tainted Chinese products, the Chinese government late Friday said it has suspended imports of chicken feet, pig ears and other animal products from seven U.S. companies. Beijing claimed the American meat had contaminants.
The spotlight on federal oversight is adding momentum to a renewed push by consumer groups to put the labeling law in place.
"When consumers hear about all these things in China, their tendency is to avoid things from China," said Chris Waldrop of the Consumer Federation of America. "But they can't because we don't have country of origin labeling, so they are left in the supermarket to their own devices."
The same experts point to several instances of mad cow disease in Canada as evidence of the need for stricter labeling.
But Regina Hildwine, director of food labeling and standards for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, says the labels will be "additional noise" on crowded packaging.
"There's a lot more information on a label that's more important for a consumer to understand, like nutrition facts," she said.
I wonder what pressures the US market will find itself under if China turns away american exports as "contaminated" on a larger and larger scale. Can we survive a trade war when the trade deficit is already so one sided? Any way, that is just one of many thoughts that came to me as I read these two articles.
cheers
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China: 7 U.S. meat importers banned
Chinese food inspectors ban meat products from seven U.S. companies
Ban comes weeks after U.S. FDA bans Chinese seafood imports
China says products contained salmonella, feed additives and veterinary drugs
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese food inspectors have banned meat products from seven U.S. companies from being imported into their country after finding a range of contamination issues in shipments checked on Saturday, according to China's official news agency Xinhua.
The suspension of meat imports from the American companies -- including Tyson Foods -- comes just weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would hold all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel shipments arriving from China until they are tested for residues from drugs not approved by the U.S. for use in farm-raised fish.
Xinhua quoted the head of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine calling the FDA action "unacceptable," and warning that "China, too, detects many substandard food products from the U.S."
Is this retaliatory?
If food stuffs sold in the US were clearly labeled with country of origin... would such actions by China influence your purchasing?
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I wouldn't doubt for a moment that it is "retaliatory." And given China's track record, I don't doubt that the so-called "contamination" is nothing but lies. Even if not lies, a bad rep is hard to shake. And China created the bad rep all by themselves.
And as for them banning shipments of our foods. Since we've banned foods from China, I'm sure we need more food here anyway.
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I'm sure origin labeling of food would deffinatly influene consumer buying dicisions.
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The USDA or FDA said a couple of weeks ago that less than 2% of imported produce, foods and foodstuff was inspected. Do you think US chemical companies keep making chemicals banned for use here unless there is a big market for it outside the US?
Tom
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Try and make them look the same.
It doesn't cut it Grim. Trying to compare a highly regulated, and safe, food supply in the US with what is going on in China simply exposes your own motivations. Forget decades of food and drug regulation. Forget billions in environmental clean up. Forget all that has been done in the US. We must be made to look like communist China. What a crock!
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strike one!
do you ever consider how many people are cutting corners to make a quick buck.....
abiding by the rules costs MONEY.....
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We in the US, buy a significant amount of Chinese products every day. This includes food. When those food products are found to contain significant amounts of contaminants which can sicken or kill (90+ people have died in South America from medicines containing Chinese ingredients) it is an issue worth discussion.
Combine this with the fact that market forces in the US have actively discouraged the implementation of informational labeling. Laws that have been on the books for years are not being enforced.
First, I was not aware of these issues until recently. Second, I think the consumer has a right to know where their food is grown and harvested. Third, to not let the consumer know the source of their food and actively discourage revealing the source strikes me as suspicious. Fourth, I have been more concerned about the growing economic power China has gained over the US economy where they now feel they can dictate what products we must accept or threaten a trade war by rejecting our own exports to their country.
The only issue I have raised were trade issues and health concerns. I never made a direct comparison between the Chinese FDA and the US organization where I liken one to the other. You want to make that correlation then by all means go ahead because that is your right to. To complain that I am doing so is proof enough that you have only bothered to read my posts just enough to find some pretense to attack me. If you're looking for a day's entertainment then at least come up with something that is vaguely plausible.
To use your words... what a crock.
I might also mention that a recent post had someone else making the comment that I was nasty (mean?) in the way I talked to people. Fine, I know I can be bluntly direct and have apologized for it more than once when I realized I went over the line. However, I find it disingenuous for others to complain about my conduct when many here feel emboldened in their riotousness, to bandy about terms like "what a crock", "what BS", call people traitors and worse, and on and on. I point this out because it is high time someone focus on the hypocrisy rampantly displayed by certain individuals on this forum who love to act offended when it is convenient to their argument and cry foul to redirect the conversation when challenged beyond their capabilities to respond.
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