Fett - I'm involved in US/China trade and investment, have been watching this closely, its part of a complicated and growing strategic trade war between the US and China.
The drum's been beating with stories about lead paint in toys, food tampering, etc. over the past 2-3 years as the US has lobbied hard and unsuccessfully for the Chinese currency to appreciate.
Products imported from China are all subject to the same regulations as US producers, so make no mistake about it, this is about leveling the growing US trade deficit with China. When the US needs to exert pressure for negotiating leverage, it periodically releases stories like this to sway US public opinion. Doing this ahead of the Olympics is a smart move since the stories get a lot of traction as the world turns its attention to the Beijing Olympics.
I've been traveling to China for business since 1992 and trust me the food is fine there, especially at all the international hotels and restaurants that will be serving the Olympic athletes. Every major US hotel and restaurant chain has locations in Beijing selling their food to the Chinese, so this story about food safety in China is a straw-man argument. Our hotels and restaurants in China sell $10s of billions in food each year to the Chinese and visiting Westerners. McDonald's has 1,000 restaurants in China (!), so pushing this argument too hard could jeopardize over $1 billion in Chinese sales for McDonald's alone.
Like our parents taught us, don't believe everything you read in the papers, there's always more to the story.
The drum's been beating with stories about lead paint in toys, food tampering, etc. over the past 2-3 years as the US has lobbied hard and unsuccessfully for the Chinese currency to appreciate.
Products imported from China are all subject to the same regulations as US producers, so make no mistake about it, this is about leveling the growing US trade deficit with China. When the US needs to exert pressure for negotiating leverage, it periodically releases stories like this to sway US public opinion. Doing this ahead of the Olympics is a smart move since the stories get a lot of traction as the world turns its attention to the Beijing Olympics.
I've been traveling to China for business since 1992 and trust me the food is fine there, especially at all the international hotels and restaurants that will be serving the Olympic athletes. Every major US hotel and restaurant chain has locations in Beijing selling their food to the Chinese, so this story about food safety in China is a straw-man argument. Our hotels and restaurants in China sell $10s of billions in food each year to the Chinese and visiting Westerners. McDonald's has 1,000 restaurants in China (!), so pushing this argument too hard could jeopardize over $1 billion in Chinese sales for McDonald's alone.
Like our parents taught us, don't believe everything you read in the papers, there's always more to the story.
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