Chicken market in Xining, Qinghai province, China
Kudos to Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) for demanding that the Obama administration release the food safety language in the proposed TPP. The three democrats (of course!) are concerned about the secrecy revolving around the massive global trade deal-like our food system needs more help from the multi-nationals!
“The controversial trade deal with eleven Pacific Rim nations could erode our capacity to prevent unsafe food imports from entering the U.S. food supply. More imports will mean that a smaller share of imported food and fish will be inspected at the border, while the structural TPP food safety provisions could undermine critical U.S. import surveillance and food safety standards.
“The fish farming (or aquaculture) industry in the TPP partner nations of Vietnam and Malaysia presents a case study in potential problems when trade meets food safety. Both countries have aggressively developed their export-oriented aquaculture industries. But fish farmers in these countries often use veterinary medicines and fungicides that are illegal in the United States to combat disease in overcrowded fish ponds and river cages.
“We know there is a problem with these imports. The Food and Drug Administration only inspects about three percent of seafood shipments from Vietnam and Malaysia, but rejects 16 percent of the shipments it does examine. 13 percent of those are rejected for chemicals and veterinary drugs that are banned for aquaculture use in the United States. The FDA clearly needs to strengthen their scrutiny of aquaculture imports, but the TPP food safety provisions could make it hard to implement and enforce the safeguards necessary to protect American consumers from unsafe fish imports.
It's not just the fish.
Chicken imports from China anyone? How about
pet food from China? You get the idea-more but not better- and no way to control the quality lest we offend the importing countries and we get sued.
There is another side of the coin-more exports for US food companies- how do you like the idea of the US becoming a giant factory farm for China? Or sending our precious water overseas when we are in crisis here?
What are they trying to hide by keeping the details of the TPP secret? That is the concern.
Thanks to Reps. Slaughter, DeLauro and Pingree for their work in trying to prevent a food safety and public health debacle for the American public.
Sign Food & Water Watch petition to STOP secret trade deals!