Re: Chinese poison - at request of corporations....
GoMavs
defects, they are recalled... This creates major losses for corporations.
Mattel is the latest example of that. Their stocks dropped like a hot knife
through butter.
"Karen Gordon" <ar...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote in message
news:fa5ps3$hjs$1...@theodyn.ncf.ca...
> (K): Yep, the Chinese are sending inferior goods and poisonous foods into
> Canada and the U.S. But at whose request? Who decided that contracting
> with a country known for its tawdry workmanship, its lack of concern for
> health and safety, and its penchant for money (aka 'prosperity) was the
> way to go?
>
> CORPORATE AMERICA and CORPORATE CANADA - that's who. Cheap labour, big
> profits. That's all that these companies cared about. Now Canadians and
> Americans (and their pets) are dying or being injured because of that
> liaison with a country that should never have been trusted with foodstuffs
> or items of safety. And while we blame the Chinese and their greed for
> what they're sending into our country, we forget who decided to do
> business with them for the same reason - greed.
>
> 'Global trade' is making a whole lot of north american companies very,
> very
> rich. It's also going to kill or hurt a whole lot of Canadians and
> Americans in the pursuit of those riches. We need to rethink unregulated
> trade from ANY country in 'developing countries'. If the U.S. border can
> be closed for one dead cow, it sure as hell can be closed for everything
> from unsafe vehicle tires to poisons in foods. PURPOSEFUL poisons in
> foods.
> ________________________
>
> Trade Deficit in Food Safety: Proposed NAFTA Expansions Replicate Limits
> On U.S. Food Safety Policy That Are Contributing To Unsafe Food Imports
>
> July 2007
>
> Executive Summary:
>
> Revelations of significant safety threats posed by imported foods have
> dramatically heightened public awareness that current policies are failing
> to protect consumers from exposure to dangerous and potentially deadly
> imported food and products. The recent discovery of tainted imports of pet
> food ingredients that sickened or killed some 39,000 animals should be a
> wake-up call for all Americans. A steadily increasing amount of food on
> U.S. dinner plates is imported. The massive growth in imports and current
> trade rules that limit domestic safety standards on imported products and
> border inspection are forcing U.S. consumers increasingly to rely on
> foreign governments to regulate the food and other products they will
> bring into their homes.
> [....]
>
> Today nearly $65 billion in food goods are imported into the United
> States annually nearly double the value imported when the North American
> Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and World Trade Organization (WTO) went into
> effect in the mid-1990s. Today, over 80 percent of the seafood Americans
> eat is imported. In the NAFTA-WTO era from 1995 to 2005, seafood imports
> increased 65 percent. Between 1995 and 2005, shrimp imports alone jumped
> 95 percent.
> [...]
>
> This report explains the rules incorporated into the proposed FTAs with
> Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea that limit food safety standards
> and border inspection. The agreements prioritize facilitating access for
> imports over consumer safety - requiring the United States to rely on
> foreign regulatory structures and foreign safety inspectors to ensure that
> food imports are safe. Unfortunately, data show that many foreign
> regulatory systems are simply not up to the task.
> [...]
>
> Contrary to what consumers believe, the vast majority of imported foods
> that end up on the dinner plates of U.S. consumers is unexamined and
> untested. Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), estimates that it
> will only conduct border inspections on .6 percent of the food that it
> regulates (vegetables, fruit, seafood, grains, dairy and animal feed) at
> the border in 2007 - down from an already disconcerting eight percent
> prior to NAFTA and WTO.
>
> FDA data makes clear that Americans are three times more likely to be
> exposed to dangerous pesticide residues on imported foods than on domestic
> foods. Even though FDA inspectors have only examined a tiny fraction of
> imports in recent years, inspectors have caught numerous dangerous
> substances in imports from Peru.
>
> The FDA has found illegal pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, the
> parasite cryptosporidium in salad vegetables and basil, unknown and
> unapproved
> drugs and capsules (including filthy and unapproved shark cartilage
> capsules and unapproved cats claw capsules), Listeria in avocadoes, and
> unsafe color additives in chocolate bon bons and soft drinks. Similarly,
> they have caught dangerous products from Panama.
>
> Only 11 percent of beef, pork and chicken imported so far in 2007 has
> been inspected at the border by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
>
> While over 80 percent of seafood eaten by Americans is now imported, in
> 2006, the FDA was able to inspect only 1.93 percent of total seafood
> imports. The vast majority of these inspections were visual. For 2006
> only .16 percent of the 859,357 shipments of seafood were refused entry
> into the United States.
>
> The estimated annual incidence of infection with Vibrio, a diarrheal
> disease associated with seafood, increased 78 percent from 1996 to 2006,
> according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
> Vibrio is associated with eating oysters, which are imported increasingly
> into the United States from South Korea, Colombia, Peru and other nations.
> [...]
>
> Similarly, FDA inspectors have documented problems with Panamanian seafood
> exports to the United States including Listeria in smoked salmon,
> Salmonella in shrimp and lobster tails, poisonous swordfish and shark
> loin,
> and obvious filth in dried, fresh and frozen fish.
> [...]
>
> While currently the four prospective FTA countries governments have the
> ability to challenge U.S. food standards in government-to-government WTO
> disputes, the proposed FTAs would newly empower the over 10,000 food
> exporters currently registered from Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea
> to pursue challenges directly against U.S. food safety laws if they
> believe such laws undermine their FTA-granted foreign investor rights.
>
> This is not a speculative threat. Already under NAFTA, Canadian cattle
> producers have used such foreign investor private enforcement rights to
> demand $235 million in compensation from the U.S. government over the U.S.
> temporary ban on Canadian beef imports when several Canadian cattle were
> initially found to be infected with mad cow disease.
>
> The pending FTAs establish new committees to speed up implementation of
> mechanisms to facilitate trade rules, including equivalence
> determinations, that require the United States to permit imports of meat
> and poultry products that do not meet U.S. safety standards.
>
> Once so-called equivalence is achieved, products to be imported into a
> country
> must only meet the standards of the exporting country - not those of the
> importing country.
> [...]
>
> While many consumer products, such as Thomas the Tank Engine toys, have
> mandatory country-of-origin labeling, consumers are none the wiser
> regarding many food products because the implementation of a federal law
> passed in 2002 requiring country-of-origin labeling on beef, pork, lamb,
> fresh fruits and vegetables, seafood and peanuts has been delayed time and
> time again by intense industry lobbying.
>
> The report concludes with tips for consumers on how to protect themselves
> from unsafe imported food. However, these recommendations cannot replace
> desperately needed reforms to U.S. trade and food safety policies
> including the specific recommendations in this report.
>
> - Global Trade Watch
>
>
Duncan Patton
ar...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Karen Gordon) wrote:
> CORPORATE AMERICA and CORPORATE CANADA - that's who. Cheap labour, big
> profits. That's all that these companies cared about. Now Canadians and
I bot some pants real cheap once. Made somewhere they didn't pay much.
Nothin' ever stayed in the pockets when you sat down ;-)
Dhu
Cold Lazarus
Safety side. His sig is on the CN Tower's whiteprints.
Without his sig, the thing would never have broken ground or met safety
standards. In fact, he was the guy who made the food at the restaurant
crappy because he insisted that they couldn't have a gas range or an oven
up there! Food up the elevator!
Times have changed.
When I was a boy, he let me play with a chunk of lead as a toy, that I once
painted with gold paint and pretended it to be "gold"!
I have no idea why he let me do that.
Cold Lazarus
> (K): Yep, the Chinese are sending inferior goods and poisonous foods into
> Canada and the U.S. But at whose request? Who decided that contracting
> with a country known for its tawdry workmanship, its lack of concern for
> health and safety, and its penchant for money (aka 'prosperity) was the
> way to go?
>
that I recently bought on the Vancouver Stock Exchange?
What a drag.
Better go Syrian next time.
Duncan Patton
Because they used to have lead water pipes and nothin' came of
it if you didn't drink from the hot.
Dhu
jimjames5417
> (K): Yep, the Chinese are sending inferior goods and poisonous foods into
> Canada and the U.S. But at whose request? Who decided that contracting
> with a country known for its tawdry workmanship, its lack of concern for
> health and safety, and its penchant for money (aka 'prosperity) was the
> way to go?
>
> profits. That's all that these companies cared about. Now Canadians and
It seems strange to me that Krazy Karen would attack the safety of
products produced from her emblem Socialist paradise like Red China!!
After all, isn't this what she wants to turn Canada into??
Cold Lazarus
I know the native language, a bit.
póg mo thóin.
I'm prouder of my Irish than I am of my English heritage.
Chom Noamsky
news:1187439869....@r29g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> It seems strange to me that Krazy Karen would attack the safety of
> products produced from her emblem Socialist paradise like Red China!!
> After all, isn't this what she wants to turn Canada into??
Is it called socialism when you ask that corporate entities account for
their unethical behaviour?
Duncan Patton
Cold Lazarus <claz...@yahoo.com> wrote:
"English" are the mixed descendants of previous immigrations
and some German/Norse/French migration/invasions of about 1000
to 1400 years ago. A lot of the "angst" in British culture
comes from internalized racism of the kind that impelled
most of my ancestors to flee the Rocks.
Dhu