[quote=“LoriW, post:52, topic:16451”]
Unfortunately, the scenario Spocko raised is not far fetched. It has happened with equivalence for chicken from China. All you needed to do was google… And, you might also recall, re. you idea that consumers can just choose to buy American that in 2012 the WTO ruled against the U.S. Country of Origin meat labeling system - ie the policy that would LET US consumers have the info to choose. [/quote]
It hasn’t happened with chicken. China is allowed to import cooked chicken products, and only from chickens that were raised in the US and/or Canada. This is nothing similar to Spocko’s raw-Chinese-prawns-through-Vietnam scenario, not least because there was a definite and deliberate process that had to be followed before the equivalence was declared (which we can clearly see in your USDA link).
If food safety does become a large enough concern, companies will find ways to publicize the country of origin of their products, even if not on the packaging itself. Labeling restrictions may not be optimal, but there are also legitimate arguments for them.
No. What this says is that there was no scientific basis for withholding equivalence. If there are/were legitimate safety concerns, equivalence can be withheld. For example, if there are legitimate safety concerns regarding Chinese-raised and/or raw chickens, the US can and almost certainly will withhold equivalence.
Right. I don’t think we should be relying on this video at all, especially since none of the information is sourced. But even when the original documents are available, as they are with the IP provisions, summaries and editorials are still helpful, though sources with both reputational and institutional integrity are preferred.
Also, you might want to note that there are pretty easy to use buttons you can use when commenting to do things like respond to people, to quote them, to insert links, and to edit your posts.
