Posted on 09/08/2012 3:00:42 PM PDT by george76
Because of the importance of the US market, chocolate manufacturers in Switzerland are submitting to Uncle Sam’s intrusion in their factories but they are not happy about it.
“The fact that a foreign authority is involved in our Swiss businesses is unseemly,” Daniel Bloch, of Chocolats Camille Bloch, told Handelszeitung, the German-language business journal.
The newspaper has discovered that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to inspect 21 chocolate factories and 18 dairies in Switzerland.
The move is part of the implementation of America’s Food Safety Modernization Act, new legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama last year that aims, among other things, to combat bioterrorism.
...
the planned inspections appear to go well beyond health issues to include such details as sales, ownership, employees and the size of company buildings.
“We ask ourselves, what is the real reason for the FDA inspections
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.ch ...
This is the same fellow who was making noises about how the USA shouldn’t be a global bully?
Make up your mind Barack.
It ain’t over till the naked lady sings.
Like so many bills passed by congress without full comprehension the stupes are oblivious to unintended consequences.
Not from the perspective of the free trade policy makers.
Tell the “inspctors” to buzz off, and if they don’t like Swiss chocolate, they can eat sh*t.
And here I thought the Swiss were an independent people.
I saw the leading edge of this coming while we were still farming.
The USDA starting sending out circulars to farmers, telling us to control access to our properties more tightly. They had daydreams that terrorists were going to infiltrate the US food supply at the sources.
I told an APHIS honcho back then that this was silly in the extreme. The best way to terrorize the US food supply would simply be to import BSE and FMD from foreign countries... and then I pointed out to her that we’d already done the former from Canada - several times.
It will simply be a matter of time before FMD comes into the US - probably from South America, and it will be one of the champions of “free trade” in the agri-processing companies (think of ConAgra, Smithville, et al) pushing for faster/leaner/easier inspections at ports of entry - which is why they want to push this stuff upstream.
When, not if, FMD arrives here... you’re going to see some real crap hit the fan, fast.
If the USDA were actually concerned about this stuff, they’d get off their lazy asses and start inspecting foodstuffs being imported into the US the way the Japanese do. When the Japanese inspect foodstuffs, they really inspect them. Some of my neighbors exported timothy hay to Japan for Japanese racehorse - ie, this hay wasn’t actually in the human food chain. Didn’t matter. The Japanese inspected every container that came into the US. If they found pests in the hay that they specifically forbade in their import restrictions, they’d box the cargo container back up and ship the hay back across the Pacific to the farmer - at the farmer’s cost.
The US could learn about airport security from the Israelis and food safety from the Japanese.
The solution is to inspect here, on US soil, where we have full control.
If the imported products don’t meet our specifications for safety and purity, then we tell the shipper: “Take it back, we’re refusing entry to this product.”
Simple. We used to do it all the time.
Ah, but this is too expensive for the “free trade uber alles” crowd, who want “economic efficiency” above all else. They contend that we must inspect at the source, so as to eliminate the possibility that there would be a wasted shipping turn on the products because of destination country rejection.
My attitude is different. I say that we should inspect imports here, on US soil, with full control of the situation. If the products don’t pass our inspections, we turn the shipment around and send it back to the producer on the other end, and *at their expense*, not ours.
After a year or so of this policy, no one will export anything to the US that doesn’t meet our standards, because the mere act of refusal will be tantamount to a fine and penalty. Exporters to the US would double down on their inspections and conformance testing to be sure that they got by our inspectors.
That’s just too much for the “free trade uber alles” crowd. They’d rather see your dog, kids or even your entire family die... just as long as they minimize costs.
My cynical side thinks that the inspectors will go away once the Swiss manufacturers make some campaign contributions.
You're right that the free traitors will scream like stuck pigs if you suggest that we subject chinese products coming in to the same red tape we subject domestic products. Of course the FDA is more interested in doing Monsanto's bidding and going after anybody who produces non-toxic food, than actually inspecting the foreign and big-ag poison being sold as food to Americans.
Mine thinks that the need to conduct the inspections is contrived, so that the department can create juicy positions as Godiva chocolate inspectors as political favors.
Now the protectionists are blaming the free-traders. LOL
Hey, at least our Swiss chocolate will be safe.
Don't worry. I'm hearing that the chocolate ration will be increased from 30 grams, to 25 grams!
Got to keep those affirmative action Federal workers busy. Keep up the pretense they actually do something useful so they can keep living off my tax dollars.
I would love to see a photo of the Federale task force they sent to Switzerland. See how breaks down as far as sex and ethnicity. I’ll bet it looks like a freak show like the old Bill Clinton cabinet with freaky looking Janet Reno and midget Donna Shalala etc etc
Bingo! This is a jobs program. More Federal workers hooray!! For your taxes to pay 100 thousand per year salaries
My thoughts too. Maybe it is revenge because George W. Bush had to cancel a visit to Switzerland or be arrested there for war crimes. I’m not talking to my gold fish — check the internet on Bush’s cancelled visit to Switzerland.
That’s only one of a great many “non-tariff barriers to trade” that protectionists like to slip into free trade deals. Then, they howl about the intrusions into national sovereignty, and attempt to blame advocates for free(er) trade.
. . . sales, ownership, employees and the size of company buildings.*ROTFLMAO
People would be having aneurysms.
_____
*Incidentally, not something you would expect Milton Friedman to advocate.
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