The Cost of Free Trade

[Winstonm]

When free trade is engaged, how does one know the quality of the goods received without massive extra costs? Seems as if China is not only exporting poision pet food, but don't really care who they poison....

 

On May 6, the NY Times ran an article talking about medicine laced with anti-freeze that was comin’ outta’ China and into Panama for local consumption. To make a point underscoring the fact that our manufacturers don’t know the origins of what they are feeding us, read this cut-and-paste: ... “Forty-six barrels of the toxic syrup arrived via a poison pipeline stretching halfway around the world. Through shipping records and interviews with government officials, The New York Times traced this pipeline from the Panamanian port of Colón, back through trading companies in Barcelona, Spain, and Beijing, to its beginning near the Yangtze Delta in a place local people call “chemical country.” The 46 barrels in question contained diethylene glycol (an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze) but was labeled as “99.5% pure glycerin” which, as you know, is used as a sweetener in some foods, cough syrups and toothpaste. What’s the motive for the deception? Why, cost, naturally! The upshot is that last year, this poison was mixed into 260k bottles of cough syrup by the Panamanian government. Thus, among the so-far deaths, there were kids. “The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.”

 

And the following ought to make us all sleep better tonight.

 

 

In a report obtained by the Herald, one brand of blanket imported from China and widely distributed was found to have almost 10 times the amount of formaldehyde permissible under international standards.” Apparently, the textile was imported from China but the blankets made in Australia. You probably know that formaldehyde exposure is directly linked to leukemia and lung cancer. Yes, the US, Europe and Japan have standards. But again, who is enforcing this stuff? Please visualize one of those “supertankers” 10,000 containers wide and high

 

 

The "Free" aspect of free trade seems to carry quite a high price.