China Bans Food Products From Tyson & Other US Companies

It looks like the house that dealt the cards is about to lose... and lose big!

As expected China was not going to quietly accept the US bans on their food products. It's a game of high stakes poker between the Chinese government, the K Street Chinese trade lobbyists, the US elected officials, public safety agencies like the USDA and the US consumer. Of course, when the US trade deficit with China is in excess of $200 billion and US politicians and multinational corporations have broken their smaller US manufacturing and agricultural counterparts, I would guess that the Chinese interests are holding the bank and a pretty unbeatable hand.

plk

UPDATE: China Bans Food Products From Tyson, Other US Cos

Read the entire article at:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200707140557DOWJONESDJONLINE000341_FORTUNE5.htm

Summary:

Frozen poultry products from Tyson, the world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with salmonella, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site late Friday.

Other imports barred by China include frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. (SAFM), tainted with residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. that contained a leanness- enhancing feed additive, the AQSIQ said.

A Cargill spokesman denied the agency's claims. Tyson and Sanderson Farms officials were not immediately available for comment.

China's food and drug safety has come under scrutiny in recent months following North American dog and cat deaths blamed on tainted Chinese pet food ingredients.

Worries at home and around the world have heightened as a growing number of Chinese products have been found tainted with dangerous levels of toxins and chemicals.

Beijing has taken steps in recent days to improve product safety.

China's government has thoroughly investigated each case of substandard products, the official Xinhua News Agency on Saturday quoted Li Yuanping, director of the AQSIQ's import and export bureau, as saying. "China-made products should not be labeled as substandard just because of a few bad producers."

However, as China works on food safety, authorities have prominently announced rejected imports - an apparent bid to turn the tables on critics and show it is not the only country with food export safety problems.

Mark Klein, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc., disputed the Chinese inspectors' findings and said the company hoped to resolve the issue by working with U.S. and Chinese officials.

It was unclear whether the latest import bans covered only the products in question, or all of the companies' imports. An AQSIQ duty officer said Saturday said he did not know details.

Also suspended from import were products from two Atlanta-based companies: frozen chicken feet tainted with salmonella from Intervision Foods, and frozen pork tainted with ractopamine from AJC International, Inc. Phones at both companies rang unanswered late Friday.

Summarized by Copernic Summarizer

Foreign Trade Statistics courtesy of the US Census Bureau

Trade with China : 2006

NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Month	Exports	Imports	Balance
January 2006	3,479.4	21,382.5	-17,903.1
February 2006	4,098.4	17,905.4	-13,807.0
March 2006	4,958.9	20,531.3	-15,572.4
April 2006	4,328.4	21,459.1	-17,130.7
May 2006	4,500.9	22,317.6	-17,816.7
June 2006	4,348.0	23,989.7	-19,641.7
July 2006	5,060.0	24,632.0	-19,572.0
August 2006	4,758.2	26,713.3	-21,955.2
September 2006	4,644.6	27,570.6	-22,926.0
October 2006	4,991.3	29,388.6	-24,397.3
November 2006	4,809.1	27,775.1	-22,966.0
December 2006	5,208.6	24,109.2	-18,900.6
TOTAL	55,185.7	287,774.4	-232,588.6

• 'TOTAL' may not add due to rounding.
• Table reflects only those months for which there was trade.
• CONTACT: Data Dissemination Branch, U.S. Census Bureau, (301) 763-2311
• SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, Data Dissemination Branch, Washington, D.C. 20233

For more information read:

Study Documents Negative Impact of U.S. Trade Deficit with China

Hu Jinto, Bush's Banker