Posted on 06/11/2015 6:42:36 AM PDT by Enlightened1
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico, the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry.
The World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal last month, ruling the labels that say where animals were born, raised and slaughtered are discriminatory against the two U.S. border countries. Both have said they plan to ask the WTO for permission to impose billions of dollars in tariffs on American goods.
The House voted 300-131 to repeal labels that tell consumers what countries the meat is from — for example, "born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States" or "born, raised and slaughtered in the United States."
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Oh my. I fear my feeble attempt at humor has missed the mark.
The unlabeled products may be cheaper but there is a segment of the market that will buy things that are labeled as US born, raised, slaughtered, and processed meat.
Think that the halal meat vendors will buy their livestock/meat without knowing the chain?
Before the Blue Bell Ice Cream lysteria problem was identified I had several painful days of food poisoning from either some raspberries from Mexico or some Texas Blue Bell ice cream.
My experience was repeated (and I wasn’t eating the berries on the ice cream but I did consume both products in the same day each time).
I have never had to take more than 2 pepto capsules in a day before in my life and I had to take quite a few more than that each day and for several days. I was worried about problems from that.
I tossed my contained (empty) after they revealed the contamination was in Oklahoma (and didn’t match my batch) and I missed the subsequent news on Texas but did hear that Alabama was also compromised and in that report that all 3 had tested positive.
I still don’t know if I was quite ill from ice cream or contaminated berries.
Every day more Treason!
With TPP it won’t matter where anything comes from, or what’s in it. There will be no other choices. Labels: “This carton contains eggs.” Or “This package contains cheese”. Whether the eggs are whole or broken, you’ll have to buy it to find out. Is the cheese yellow, white, or moldy? Buy it and then you’ll know. Ain’t the new World Trade Authority the best thing ever!
It’s called the free market. Companies shouldn’t have to tell the consumer anything. Would I buy something like that? Probably not, but I do eat at restaurants without knowing where the meat originated. I assume the restaurant owner doesn’t want to serve me harmful stuff.
Please keep in mind, I’m not saying labels are a bad idea—not at all! I’m saying manufacturers could still put as much information on their products that they want, and consumers would be wise to be picky.
That’s what I mean when I wrote I wouldn’t normally eat foodstuffs from China. I pay more for all American, so an American manufacturer would be wise to advertise country of origin. I’m simply saying government shouldn’t force them to put that labeling on their products.
What is the government’s role? Government should enforce implied contracts between manufacturers and consumers. If someone intentionally deceives consumers by buying cheap/nasty meat from China and labels it “All American,” government would provide the means for consumers to sue.
Nothing stops you from buying all American. Nothing stops American manufacturers from labeling their products as “All American”. This change simply stops forcing companies to label country of origin on meat products. Wise American companies will still label “Made in USA” on their stuff, and smart consumers will buy accordingly.
I appreciate your reply.....I really do.....
..but do you think it would get to the point where those who presently label our beef products, ect.....’USA’ ....will be threatened to comply with non label
Stranger things have happened.
I suppose it could happen but commercial speech should be protected by the first amendment. I think the WTO only interfered because the government mandated country of origin labeling.
That is a good point about milk labels but the FDA was wrong to interfere so long as the labels were true. The fix isn’t another government mandate. The fix is less government interference.
Free markets work, but the best investments in the world is to invest in .gov.
These WTO complaints came because nations know Americans will prefer American products in some categories, particularly food. But we can bet that highly regarded products exported to the US will still have Country of Origin labels.
French Wine German Cars Any imported product with a reputation for high quality will definitely have COOL.
So the work around is to go beyond Angus “grade” beef and come up with regional names.
No, that is not called the free market. The definition I learned was that both the sellers and buyers have perfect knowledge as to product and price.
The stock market is a free market and there are elaborate, legally mandated disclosure requirements, required financial audits and many other requirements of information sellers of stock must provide to potention buyers.
All this BS about withholding information from consumers is nothing but a bunch unethical sellers trying to avoid telling consumers anything that might make their product less appealing. And that is not a free market.
Or big meat companies in the US start using such a significant portion of imported beef that they don't want to label any of their products as all USA because that might steer customers away from their other products.
That's what's happened with nutritional supplements since so much of the raw material now comes from China.
Yep, any company selling a highly regarded product will want to label and identity it in as much detail as possible.
A seller doesn’t have to reveal all information to the consumer. You might as well ask Apple Corp. to supply schematics, software printouts, engineering data, etc., simply because you bought an iPhone.
In a free market, the consumer is free to request whatever they want as part of the deal. The producer has a legal (I think) obligation to answer correctly or not at all. What they cannot legally do is lie to you about what you’re getting.
The idea the both sellers and buyers have “perfect” knowledge as to product is, frankly, ludicrous. Again, none of this prevents you as the buyer from not taking the deal. No one is twisting your arm to buy anything—well, I take that back with Obamacare—but you get the point.
“Free markets work, but the best investments in the world is to invest in .gov.”
Yes...until it all comes apart. There is a sickness in America today where nearly everyone looks to government for solutions. The problems often come from government in the first place. I think we’d all be a lot better if we were a bit more independent, but what can we do? The socialists have bought off a lot of voters and the fascists have bought off a lot of politicians.
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