How much milk are we importing from China?

right2bright on December 1, 2008 at 3:11 PM

I don’t believe fresh milk, but products that contain milk, like chocolate, etc…
Remember the (I believe it was) Snickers bars contamination early this year?

True. On the other hand, I routinely see apples and cherries from my home state for sale even at tiny corner fruit shops here in China. Anecdotally this is in sharp contrast to the blatant protectionism I remember living in Japan mid-80s to early-90s in Japan. I can even go to restaurants and order “US beef”, unlike Japan where it was illegal for most of the time I lived there. I also see “US Poultry and Egg Association” (or something similar) ads in taxis frequently. I’m pretty sure China get’s a large portion of it chicken feet from the US…

DarkCurrent on December 1, 2008 at 4:05 PM

That’s very interesting. I am to understand they buy a lot of foodstuffs from us. I am to also understand they bring inspectors to this country (the Japanese & S. Koreans sure do here in ND) to make sure what they’re buying meshes with any standards they might have.

We are supposed to be doing that ourselves. But your USDA doesn’t on a routine basis, if hardly at all.
They do not inspect American meat packing plants, either. All this has hit the fan in the last several years.

I only brought all of this up to point out that if we are going to buy ANYTHING, especially food, from another country, then those producing it should have to play by the same rules as American producers do.
Canada is still using some pesticides on food crops that have banned in the US for years. So you may be eating bread or noodles with wheat that has been sprayed with chemicals banned in the US.
Why is it these things are OK? Why don’t consumers KNOW about this?
I can’t use certain growth hormones in calves to promote growth (& I don’t ever want to do that), but some Canadians use banned drugs on their cattle & it comes HERE for our citizens to eat.
I find this stuff very disturbing.
And I do not believe for one minute that the Chinese govt. is telling us the truth about their production of exported materials. They’re a communist country that has been caught in lies before.
I thank God I know where my meat comes from-myself!

It was only a matter of time before people figured it out and stopping buying Chinese. What’s next, after capitalism, to placate the billions, war?

PattyJ on December 1, 2008 at 9:41 PM

People (Americans?) stopped buying Chinese? Why do I still see all these fully loaded freighters passing east by my windows every day?

It was only a matter of time before people figured it out and stopping buying Chinese. What’s next, after capitalism, to placate the billions, war?

aengus on December 1, 2008 at 6:19 PM

What Chinese ‘revolution’ was ever due to religion?

The Post reports that Hu has more on his mind than a cyclical business contraction. The Chinese manufacturing sector needs constant growth above a certain level to keep its population satisfied enough not to revolt against the oppressive central government.

You’re fantasising Ed. Won’t happen. Almost every revolution in Chinese history has been due to religion. By stressing economic revolt you ironically sound like a Marxist.

Second look at tariffs!!!

abobo on December 1, 2008 at 4:03 PM

Otherwise known as “How Hoover turned an economic downturn into the start of the Great Depression.”

Trade agreements (at least in agriculture) are usually never “fair” on our side of things.

True. On the other hand, I routinely see apples and cherries from my home state for sale even at tiny corner fruit shops here in China. Anecdotally this is in sharp contrast to the blatant protectionism I remember living in Japan mid-80s to early-90s in Japan. I can even go to restaurants and order “US beef”, unlike Japan where it was illegal for most of the time I lived there. I also see “US Poultry and Egg Association” (or something similar) ads in taxis frequently. I’m pretty sure China get’s a large portion of it chicken feet from the US…

Close off those markets and guarantee we’ll soon be paying $10.00 a gallon for milk and $40.00 for a t-shirt.

NoDonkey on December 1, 2008 at 2:22 PM

How much milk are we importing from China?

Close off those markets and guarantee we’ll soon be paying $10.00 a gallon for milk and $40.00 for a t-shirt.

Which will be difficult, because if we close off foreign markets, 20% of us will be out of a job.

Sorry, don’t want to go down that failed road.

NoDonkey on December 1, 2008 at 2:22 PM

T-shirts are cheap bcs we’ve been outsourced by people in other countries who don’t get benefits & probably live on in one year less than I make in one month.
Milk is already over $5 a gallon for me here in SW ND.
I’m not saying don’t trade with other countries. But when you do nothing but CONSUME from other countries, with no level playing field (trust me-Mexican, Canadian, etc beef does NOT play by USA rules like I have to) you get to be nothing but a consumer nation, which is our problem now.
No nation every will survive this in the end.
People need to be educated & stop being so apathetic.
Trade agreements (at least in agriculture) are usually never “fair” on our side of things.
If we’re going to trade with another country that makes the same stuff we do, then we have to make it as = as possible & that has NOT been done.

So-do you want to eat food from China? Or the US? Who plays by safer rules? I say let’s adopt trade policies & rules that give Americans more of an informed choice.
I know there will still be idiots who don’t care if they’re eating poison.

I’m sorry-but if %20 of the American public are employed bcs another larger percentage are outdone by unfair trade deals, then maybe that %20 had better do something else a little more viable & honorable.

Close off those markets and guarantee we’ll soon be paying $10.00 a gallon for milk and $40.00 for a t-shirt.

Which will be difficult, because if we close off foreign markets, 20% of us will be out of a job.

Sorry, don’t want to go down that failed road.

China’s growth rate has been forecast to be about 9 percent in 2008, down from 11.9 percent the year before and close to the 8 percent that economists say China must maintain in order to keep the labor market stable.

Those numbers still seem pretty good compared to other nations in their situation. Besides, it’s crazy to think any enterprise can sustain growth of 15%-30% YOY forever.

Look at how people flipped out when stock market darlings Dell and Microsoft in the late 1990s-early 2000s “only” grew 10% with profits in the billions of dollars. When compared to the 40% growth rates they’d had for years, a 10% growth rate was inexplicably viewed as a negative.

Nutty.

The answer is staring him right in the face. He simply orders the central bank to pursue policies which allow his currency to rise. Dump US dollars, depeg from the dollar and raise interest rates.

Then, all the high-saving asian worker bees can buy their own products.

lodge on December 1, 2008 at 11:18 AM

China has consistently resisted increases in the value of the RMB precisely because it’s economy is critically dependent on manufactured exports. They’ve only let it gain in recent years in response to tremendous pressure from trading partners, particularly the US, but Europe as well. China simply does not have a suffciently developed or prosperous domestic market to allow it to continue development otherwise.

“Mad Cow Disease” AKA “BSE”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy

Infected animals attributed to the USA are animals that came from (born & raised & bought later) from CANADA.

BSE is not widespread in the US, or in people when we look at the devastation other diseases cause, but this is ANOTHER reason why you should be able to know where your food comes from.
Do YOU want to eat meat from countries that have disease problems?
Do you want our USDA to remain vigilant in restricting products into the US from at risk countries?

When you have a global economy, you run the risk of letting other people feed you.
Do you REALLY want the Chinese people, the Russian people, the Candadians, the Australians,Mexicans, Indians, etc….
FEEDING you?

Folks, this China bashing is silly. The Chinese didn’t put a gun to our heads to buy their junk. All they do is make the stuff. The decision to buy is ours and ours alone.

angryed on December 1, 2008 at 12:31 PM

I agree. Which is why people will never learn.
Cheap stuff has a far greater price than the more expensive stuff produced here at home.

Do you care where your meat comes from?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_of_Origin_Labeling

You should. USDA is already looking at stopping breaded shrimp from China until they can test it all for melamine (the breading has dried milk product in it).

Consumers need to support American products.
Do you understand that Canadian, Mexican, Australian etc beef producers do NOT have to play by the same rules as we do? In some countries, they can use banned drugs on cattle that we can’t use here. Then they can sell the meat to the US & wa la! It’s in your hamburger, mixed with meat from who knows where & you have no way of knowing what you are eating.
Support American industry & agriculture by buying USA products. It really makes a difference.
Or don’t whine when someday third world countries are feeding you their human excrement coated produce & you get sick from it.

Definitely, we all pay a price when you buy the cheap stuff.

With global demand for consumer products declining, the engine of China’s economic boom will start sputtering.

…then, in the wake of poisoned toys and pet food, and a general disdain for anything not Han Chinese, maybe they can turn a little attention to introducing a little health and quality control into their product lines….

…or, maybe, if we stopped buying Chinese manufactures, we might begin manufacturing in the US again….

…naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! The unions would never permit it….