The WTO is harming Consumers
By Thom Hartmann A...
Here’s how...
The Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law was shot down by the WTO because they say COOL is a non-tariff barrier to free trade and it treats Canadian and Mexico’s products “unfair.”
Subsequently, due to the WTO ruling, our US cattle producers are forced to pay $3.6 billion in retaliatory tariffs by Mexico and Canada - unless COOL is repealed.
The COOL laws protect Americans by letting them know where the meat was born, raised, and slaughtered.
If COOL isn’t repealed, not only are our cattle producers facing major fines, but our consumers won’t know where the meat they are buying is coming from!
Wow.
Do we seriously need a group of secret people telling us what to do or what not to do.
In a poll conducted by Consumer Reports National Research Center, the results showed the 93 percent of American consumers want to have COOL laws in place.
The WTO should not be telling us what to do.
Comments
#2
C.O.O.L. is not cool, man.
#3
How much control does the WTO have over US international agreements? I'd imagine that whatever jurisdiction, if that's the right word, the WTO has over US foreign policy can be restricted, or completely destroyed, by the President or by Congress, right? The WTO is able to make suggestions, but no foreign organization or government has any actual power over the U.S. Even treaties can be undone.
I can't see the US federal government taking a WTO ruling that seriously, especially a ruling that may subject American consumers to harm and raise the ire of the farming industry. The UN can't even make Israel abandon its illegal occupations. There's no way the WTO can force the US government to do anything...at least, that's how it seems to me.
#4
I think we are in very serious times.whole foods sold out to Monsanto supporting the fake labeling bill where they can out non GMO & it can be GMO.These corp's completely sold us all out.this meat thing sounds like the free trade deal where corp's can be sovereign and Sue us for even posting a negative comment.
#5
Trump represents a party totally on board with free trade....makin merica great again! .......and the food pathogens are free!
Money, power, lies! ..... and Fascists take all!
#6
When all of us poor people have died because of the bad food, I wonder who the big corporations will find to screw next?
#7
I don't eat meat and this is a good reason for others to stop.
IN ADDITION, the government released this bogus story about American chickens being processed in China and being stamped USA or USA inspected.
Those aren't American chickens. It is not feasible or legal to move dead carcasses into and out of countries.
IF there are chickens from China getting American approved stamps, it is Chinese chickens. The same types of flocks that intermingled with pigs and gave us the H1N1 virus.. and China? The same people who exported lead, melamine and Mercury laden products to the States.
YOU could not pay me to eat chicken. or seafood, most which also comes from poison, polluted lands.
I grow my own veggies, from my own seed. Thank you. My non-gmo , non hybridization, heirloom seed, thank you very much.
People better learn to STOP relying on the government for labeling , because even with laws in place. People will lie and sell questionable goods.
BEST to rely on coops, or grow yourself... grown locally, by people you trust, or run the risk of eating tainted or tampered with food,from God knows where.
#8
Wake up. The US is already importing chicken and fish from China and allowing usda stickers applied with no mention of country of origin. This is the same country with lead in the water in Flint, love's canal, and Desert Storms 'wind illness'. The same country that admitted to deliberately injectingAmerican citizens with Syphilis and denying them treatment, tested LSD in prison inmates and agent orange on soldiers.
What exactly has to happen before you realize the American government does not have the best interest of the average American at heart?
#9
Food libel laws have been in place for some time now.
#10
Well Queenbee, I don't know for sure but I suspect the food labeling scandals to hit the fan were only after several successive Republican administrations stopped putting anything into safety for the people because food labeling laws have protected the health and safety of the American people very well for over a hundred years.
You're quite clearly shilling for big business and trying to get people to stop feeling entitled to being served and protected by their government and to stop demanding that they be so your big business paymasters can go unimpeded in their abuse and exploitation and can divert the government services to themselves.
There's nothing wrong with government then, is there? Not when it serves the corporations and billionaires, is there? No siree, then it's efficient and noble and good, isn't it?
#11
Soon enough all of our food will come from China and it will be a moot point---everyone will know exactly where it came from. I hear tell of YUGE container ships with steam tables that will keep the whoppers and egg-a-muffins we get from China warm until they get here.
#12
Queenbee said "food libel laws," like the one that Oprah violated by saying that she wasn't going to eat another hamburger after a mad cow disease outbreak in 1996. Beef prices plummeted and she was sued for "defaming the beef industry." She was eventually exonerated, though she still has not eaten another hamburger. I think that's what Queenbee meant by "food libel laws."
#13
This is really kind of a side note - but there is one other aspect to COOL that nobody else seems to be raising, so I'll interject a thought here :
COOL is basically saying that we feel we have (or should have) a right to know which Country originally produced the food items we're selecting at the local market, Right? Okay, but, is it not also true that whomever is doing the sending is fully aware of its destination to a US market.....?
Tons of our discussions here are centered around the incredible upsurge in Geopolitical struggles for power and control in nearly every direction we look. What that says to me is that our geopolitical environment (as we here on the site all know) is in a constant state of 'regime change' styled conflicts. We here in the US are constantly watching as some of our 'foes' become 'friends' and previously thought 'friends' become our 'Foes'.
So - it happens that there are quite a few countrys with 'good enough' relations with the US to be allowed to do business with us - like sell us food - but who's populations (and even governments) harbor huge anti-US sentiment..... but they sure as hell are not prevented from knowing where that pallet of food they're loading is headed.
The US's presense and interventions have made it so that lots of folks in different countrys simply don't like us, but we'll still take food from them as long as their 'official trade status' is acceptable to our Gov. We see "allies" become "Terrorists" seemingly overnight and if you don't think food can be "weaponized" - think again....
So remember: Now, you may not get to know where that food came from, but the sender knows the country it will be consumed within. That is absurd.
Go ahead and order a juicy steak at cafe. Next, piss off the waiter really good. You wont even need a bomb or run into his home with guns out to get this done. Next, when he or she is handing you that steak with a big grin..... ask yourself if you are really sure that there's no spit that steak.
Screw it - if the sender knows the recipient - that fact alone should trigger a right for the recipient to know who sent it, since that's who's gonna eat it. So, in a rapidly changing global political environment..... when you're reaching for that can on the shelf - it could be very important to know from where it was sent. A "one way mirror' is no substitute for transparency, since only one side can see the other one.
#14
It just goes to show how absurd these trade agreements really are, and how threatening they are to our own sovereignty. Americans have a right to know where their food comes from, not just the address of the company that distributes it.
#15
George Carlin tells the truth!
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Mueller's favorite place to pray (written about in "Prophet's Way"), and the roof of the room where the Last Supper is reputed to have happened.
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story."
The WTO sueing the U.S. for COOL is just a forwarning of what consumers, workers, and those seeking to protect our natural resources can expect if President Obama signs the TPP.
In the meantime, don't eat meat unless you know exactly where it's coming from--preferably a local source you can verify yourself.