THE MORNING RANT: “Free Trade” and the Importation of Chinese Garlic Grown in Human Sewage and Processed by Slave Labor

In the weekly Food Thread here at Ace of Spades HQ blog, Mr. CBD frequently alludes to the filthy food products imported from China. I will not eat any seafood that comes from China, and I clearly need to check the provenance of the garlic I buy too.

Senator Rick Scott (R – FL) is requesting that government agencies responsible for food safety investigate China’s abhorrent agricultural practices involving garlic.

“Sen. Rick Scott to Biden Admin: Garlic Grown in Communist China Poses Major Threat to Security & Food Safety” [12/10/2024]

Senator Rick Scott sent letters to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), United States Trade Representative (USTR) and Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to investigate the food safety of garlic grown in Communist China following reports that the garlic is being grown in human sewage, then bleached and harvested in abhorrent conditions often involving slave and child labor.

An obvious way to address the problem is with tariffs that take away the cost advantage of China’s sewage garlic. But tariffs are deeply offensive to the Principled Free Traders who are constantly reminding us that “tariffs are a tax on consumers.”

Donald Trump is aggressively promoting tariffs, while those who advocate for surrender to foreign mercantilism (e.g. allowing tariff-free imports from countries that don’t reciprocate) in the name of “free trade” are desperately advocating for submission to China and the like.

David Harsanyi speaks for many Principled Free Traders in this Washington Examiner piece from a few weeks ago, “Trump’s Tariffs Would Put US Last”

Now, I realize that some of the dead-eyed partisan zombies in the GOP will just repeat whatever Trump says, but this is idiocy. For one thing, tariffs are literally a tax, as they are paid by U.S. corporations and consumers. Secondly, the difference between the price of goods today and the price added by a tariff is called “tax incidence” or “the let’s screw consumers surcharge.” Sooner or later, consumers pay every tax.

There is not even a pretense among Principled Free Traders that trade should be fair. In addition, they’ll argue that the exploitation of foreign labor not subject to American labor standards is a beautiful thing, because it reduces prices for American consumers and allows their paychecks to go further…at least for those who didn’t lose their paychecks by having their jobs offshored.

However, Trump is right about one thing: Trade isn’t fair. Americans should pray it never gets fair. I’m sure the billions of people in developing nations who work tedious menial labor jobs probably don’t find it “fair” that Americans use the savings found in trade to help build unprecedented wealth.

Interestingly, the same Principled Free Traders who rejoice about working-class Americans losing their jobs to foreign slaves, claim to also be advocating for the economic interests of those same working-class Americans they seek to put out of work. In fact, Harsanyi claims that putting a working-class American out of work is a good thing, because he will now be able to go get a “better job.”

Trade allows average working-class Americans to buy all kinds of things they could not otherwise afford because of trade. Forcing working-class Americans to make things foreigners or machines can make cheaper only undermines the creation of better jobs for them and their children.

If tariffs on Chinese garlic grown in sewage and produced by slave labor results in a “tax on consumers,” then the abolition of U.S. slavery was a “tax on consumers” buying cotton products. I am proud to state that in the trade-off of higher prices versus the perpetuation of foreign slavery, I will risk the wrath of the Principled Free Traders and oppose slavery.

My latest piece has been published at The Blaze in which I take a look at the destruction wrought by Stellantis’ just-departed CEO, who less than a year ago accepted a $39MM compensation package for short term machinations that resulted in a global sales collapse and rapid degradation of the Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler brands in the United States, and similar damage to its European brands, including Fiat and Peugeot. Amidst the global revenue collapse that Carlos Tavares engineered, he remained committed to EVs and the European emission goals, despite the collapse of the EV bubble.

It's behind a paywall, but if you have a Blaze subscription, I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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