Posted on 02/27/2017 11:37:24 PM PST by Pinkbell
President Donald Trump intends to intensify enforcement of food safety regulations as a cudgel in international trade negotiations, according to leaked recordings of a what appears to be a phone conversation between Trump and Wilbur Ross, his nominee for Commerce Secretary.
During the conversation, which was recorded in December, the then-president-elect also advocated a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all foreign imports, an issue on which his administration has adopted numerous different positions and which Speaker Paul Ryan has flatly rejected.
The proposals came during an apparent phone conversation that was captured on video and provided to Gizmodo via SecureDrop, a portal permitting whistleblowers and sources to reach us while remaining anonymous.
The videos don’t show Trump or Ross, and appear to have been recorded in an office where Trump’s voice could be heard on speaker phone and Ross’ voice was audible from a neighboring room. Metadata associated with the files indicates that they were recorded at the same location as the midtown Manhattan offices of Ross’ private equity firm at roughly 10:25 on the morning of December 13, 2016—about a half-hour after Kanye West’s famous visit to Trump Tower. (Later that afternoon, according to the president-elect pool reports, Ross visited Trump for an in-person meeting.) Neither the White House nor Ross responded to a request for comment from Gizmodo.
At one point in the conversation, Trump and Ross discuss the possibility of using safety regulations on food imports as a mechanism to pressure foreign companies or governments.
TRUMP: If you look at Japan, what they do with food—they say it’s not clean enough, and you have to send it back, and by the time it comes back it’s all gone.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
I post this only in illustrating there are more leaks. However, before we blame the transition on this, this was filmed in Ross' private equity firm office. It was obviously someone who worked in his office. Unless he had someone in his office who also worked for the transition team, this person just found themselves in the right place at the right time. They aren't the person responsible for all the leaks coming out of the White House, but this most likely is not our mole.
Isn’t this sort of taping considered to be bugging a private conversation since the taper was on neither end of the conversation, it was not in a public space, and neither participant in the call was aware of it?
I don’t know the law on it, but they turned it in anonymously, so they can’t get in trouble. However, I wonder how big the circle of people with access to Ross’ office was and if they know who would have been in the office at that time. This is not a big deal, so I doubt they will put effort into looking for this person who is most likely completely unrelated to the leaks we are seeing right now.
Let me guess...Trump has been exposed as having the common sense to realize that food from some foreign countries is not as safe as food from the US.
[[Leaked Audio: Trump Cares About Food Safety But Only If the Food Is Foreign]]
GASP! Oh My Gosh! Stop the presses! You’re kidding me? Did an Ambassador and two other Americans die as a result of his comment?
>Let me guess...Trump has been exposed as having the common sense to realize that food from some foreign countries is not as safe as food from the US.
Sounds like common sense to me.
HOW THE HELL WAS A PRIVATE CONVERSATION ON PRIVATE PHONES, RECORDED AND RELEASED
The Intelligence Community must be destroyed.
Linda Tripp...
HOW THE HELL WAS A PRIVATE CONVERSATION ON PRIVATE PHONES, RECORDED AND RELEASED
This proves the Deep State / CIA / NSA is recording domestic conversations between the President elect and his own pick for Commerce Secratary. No foreigners involved. No Russians.
These spy traitors in our own government need to do prison time.
“..... according to leaked recordings of a what appears to be a phone conversation between Trump and Wilbur Ross, his nominee for Commerce Secretary.”
The leaks seem endless
(I know: trade agreements. Reset those, too....)
It all depends on who is taping and the target.
The progressives throw out all kinds of objections against James O’Keefe and Project Veritas.
Those statements actually apply to all of these Trump administration leaks
Almost no food is actually inspected now, low single digit percentages. How are you going to pay for a 900-2000% increase in inspections without a tariff? Some countries we might be able to trust more than others so that would bring total costs down some but nothing should be coming in from China without thorough inspection.
Leavung aside the leak aspects for a moment, country of origin labelling for beef and pork needs to come back. That was repealed under Obama’s watch. Trump wasn’t the guy kowtowing to the WTO.
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