China has sharply increased inspections of imported U.S. food, escalating its spat with Washington over product safety and leaving American beef piling up in warehouses and delaying shipments of black pepper and other goods.
Authorities who used to inspect as little as 5 percent of imported goods now check every shipment of American poultry, snack foods and other products, companies and trade groups say.
"I suspect they are doing this to keep the pressure on the United States to relent on some of these (food safety disputes), because the U.S. is taking a very tough stand on Chinese products," said James Rice, the China country manager for Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat processor.
People really need to pay attention to this. While blocking American imports might hurt some companies, Tyson chicken being the biggest, we as Americans need to keep the pressure up on our Government to keep these potentially tainted products out of the US and to heighten our scrutiny of them. I don't like to see American products piling up on Chinese docks because of this but we can't relent.
Hell, even the Grocery Manufacturers Association agrees that the government needs to strengthen regulation of food imports to catch tainted foods mainly from China.
Hopefully this Chinese pressure will not work. It's going to hurt China more than us. The hog disease Sarpy Sam in Agriculture, Food Security, The World at 06:50 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)
Defined tags for this entry: China, federal oversight, food safety, food security, Grocery Manufactu, trade pressure
