We have yet to comment here at ComingAnarchy on the state of the US presidential election. Don’t be fooled—we pay attention—but with half a year left until the election, there’s little interesting substance to follow, except when the debate shifts to foreign affairs. Which brings me to Senator Obama’s recent comments about restrictions on US beef imports to the Far East, via the Marmot:
“You can’t get beef into Japan and Korea, even though, obviously, we have the highest safety standards of anybody, but they don’t want to have that competition from U.S. producers.”
Very nice. My comments:
1. There is some pretty blatant, if subconscious, “America is number 1!” flavor in Mr. Obama’s statement there, obviously.
2. The fact that US health and safety agricultural standards are better than Japan is, well, funny and untrue.
3. At least in Japan’s case, the competition from US beef was welcome for many years. When the single incident of Mad Cow was discovered and the ban on US beef implemented, this did little to help domestic beef sales in Japan, which relies on quality not quantity for its sales. The biggest benefactor was the Australian beef industry and its exports to Japan.
4. Considering how alarmist the Japanese public is on perceived health risks, the Japanese government has actually taken pretty proactive steps to limit the PR damage from various “Mad Cow” reports.
Comments 2 through 4 refer only to Japan. With regard to Korea, I quote Marmot:
Even if Obama’s stump rhetoric about safety standards are laughable, his overall message — that Korea has almost unfettered access to the US market while simultaneously closing its market to US goods — is correct. Whether the good senator actually does something about this, however, will be interesting to see, especially in light of what Obama said or didn’t say to the Canadians.
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COMMENTS / 8 COMMENTS
Joe Jones added these pithy words on 16 Jun 08 at 7:00 amI reckon the issue here is that most Americans just don’t care about beef exports to Japan and Korea, and the few who do are—surprise!—beef exporters who appreciate their lines being parroted. Obama probably has no Japan or Korea experts on his staff, but you can be damn sure that the cow lobby has sent him many materials and questionnaires on his agriculture policy.
Frankly, with an election this contested and a highly unpredictable global economy and a collection of psychotic leaders still in power overseas, neither candidate’s foreign policy is going to be based on what they say during the election season. Both Obama and McCain will probably give more reasonable answers when they have executive agencies to tap into. They just have to pander for the time being and audaciously hope that their words flip the right switches in certain people’s brains.
jim added these pithy words on 17 Jun 08 at 12:07 amWell, the only thing I liked about that Obama quote is the America-is-#1 bias. My primary concern about him is that he comes from the America-Sucks wing of the Left.
A President should be irrational about his own country. Obama is trying to fake that, since he can’t win just on the votes of people who hate America.
aceface added these pithy words on 17 Jun 08 at 3:45 amJoe:
Obama does have quite a few Japan/Korea experts around him,probably more so than Clinton.He just wants some votes from the midwest.There’s one thing Obama is confusing about Japan and Korea(and so is many in Marmot hole),is that Korea agreed to have Free Trade Agreement with the U.S(and Japan isn’t) and the agreement was basically for the benefit of Korea.
The U.S didn’t even put rice in the list of agricultural libralization.That means the FTA is far from free trade.Yet Washington insisted because the White House wanted some legacy of Bush years.And lowering the tariff on beef import (40% tariff to be removed in 15 years)was one of a few thing the U.S had insisted.Here in Japan,the tariff on imported beef is about 38.5%(The WTO rules allows Japan to have maximum 50% tariff).So,I say beef is relatively “free”than other goods that the U.S wants to export to Japan.
Joe Jones added these pithy words on 17 Jun 08 at 6:04 amAs an aside from the political talk, a quick story from my first tour of duty in Japan as a broke exchange student in 1999 (this is hearsay, mind you):
A relative of mine ran into a traveling salesman who worked for a company similar to Omaha Steaks—selling premium cuts of beef by mail order. He was talking about his company and how it could send meat “to anywhere in the world.”
The relative said “Really? Because I know someone in Japan who really likes steak and would love to get some as a gift!”
The salesman responded: “Yeah… ummm… by that, I meant anywhere except Japan.”
Not that this has much to do with the topic, just something which I suddenly recalled…
Aceface added these pithy words on 17 Jun 08 at 7:42 amhttp://homepage.mac.com/naoyuki_hashimoto/iblog/C1084425330/E1762420049/index.html
von Kaufman-Turkestansky added these pithy words on 17 Jun 08 at 8:19 pmI agree with the post above that expresses concern about the America-haters. If Americans were serious about growth and success, they would do away with this democracy business. Obviously American people who have a different opinion than the current administration are America-haters, which is without doubt the same as traitors (just ask Ann what’s-her-name), and must be silenced, at least in mainstream forums.
Saru added these pithy words on 18 Jun 08 at 12:21 pmA few comments:
1) I agree that Japan’s safety standards on beef are more stringent (I won’t say better, because let’s face it, both countries have problems. Remember that guy in Kyoto back in ‘04 who kept selling chickens and eggs while thousands of his birds died of avian influenza?) than those of the United States. As I understand it, Japan inspects every cow before slaughter, whereas the United States relies on random sampling. Of course, given the vast difference in the volumes of the two countries’ beef industries, this is a much easier task for Japan. (Incidentally, the imposition of such standards are a classic trick to protect small domestic markets from large foreign competitors. But I agree with you that the Aussies made out like bandits on the US beef ban.) Thus, demanding such standards of the United States arguably constitute a non-tariff barrier to trade. It is also worth noting, however, that Japan has had 26 reported cases of BSE, while the United States has only had three. This could be due to Japan’s tighter monitoring, which would catch more cases, or it could be due to differences in feed practices that would generate more cases in Japan than in the United States. (Notably, I think the United States only banned the use of ruminant risk material in ruminant feed in 1997, and only a month or so ago banned it in all animal feed as part of the beef deal with the Korean government. Not sure about Japan.)
2) The World Animal Health Organization (OIE) in May of last year designated the United States as a “controlled risk” country, which in principle suggests on a scientific basis that beef from cattle of all ages should be safe for human consumption if risk materials are removed. Korea and Japan appear to have ignored this designation in favor of their own questionably applicable standards.
3) That said, I can’t blame some Japanese and Koreans for not trusting the US government and the US meat packing industry. Both countries have agreed to reopen their markets to various degrees in the past several years, only to have US meatpackers shoot themselves in the foot by mislabeling or shipping beef with bone chips or other BSE risk materials.
4) Finally, don’t even get me started on Obama and the Democrats’ crap excuse for a trade policy. That this guy, or any Democratic member of Congress can get up and talk about issues like market access or protectionism with a strait face is laughable. And how dare the Dems feign anger over Korea’s backing out on the beef deal. The Dems royally screwed the Administration with their own little trade deal last May, when they implied that if USTR renegotiated pending trade deals to include labor and environmental provisions all would be right with the world. Deals renegotiated, and now they want more, more, more. (And yes, I know they are doing it for the votes, which makes it even more disgusting in my opinion.)
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