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I had a laugh reading that. You should see how restrictive the Canadian Dairy industry is. At least you can get Irish butter in the US. Butter quotas in Canada are vanishingly small and hard to come by. Dairy is much cheaper in the US.
Jim Wright
So, why can't we just import baby formula? Heh heh, glad you asked. Ever heard of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement? That bit of legislation Trump and Republicans proudly replaced NAFTA...www.facebook.com
Jim Wright
So, why can't we just import baby formula?
Heh heh, glad you asked.
Ever heard of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement? That bit of legislation Trump and Republicans proudly replaced NAFTA with?
Remember Trump bragging about that? Remember?
That. That's why.
Three (or four, depending on your point of view) American companies control 90% of the global infant formula market, chief among them is Abbott Nutrition. When a Chinese company announced it was investing in a Canadian manufacturing facility to make powdered baby formula from excess Canadian skim milk powder (Canada makes a lot of butter, so they have a lot of leftover skim milk), Abbott and the US diary industry spent millions lobbying congress to change the trade rules -- claiming increased Canadian production of formula would "negatively impact U.S. dairy trade and jobs."
Here's the actual 2018 lobbying statement from the International Dairy Foods Association (which despite the name, is a lobbying group for the AMERICAN dairy industry): https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22014622-ustr-idfa
And so, when the Trump Administration backed by a Republican congress wrote and implemented the USCMA to replace NAFTA, they imposed new regulations restricting commercial importation of baby formula from Canada (you can still import it for your own personal use, though you'll have to pay extra for it and there are limits. Also, I'd think twice about buying it from Canada and then trying to resell it at jacked up prices on eBay without checking that law first).
This is part of the US government's long history of protecting the very powerful US dairy industry, which has always imposed very high tariffs on importation of dairy products from Europe and Asia. And even previous free trade agreements (such as NAFTA) imposed pretty specific restrictions on the import of formula from our free trade partners, such as Canada, to protect the American monopoly by companies such as Abbott. The USCMA *significantly* increased those restrictions and imposed draconian fees. A good breakdown of this entire complex situation is here: https://thedispatch.com/.../americas-infant-formula...
There's a lot more to it, such as FDA restrictions on nutritional standards and labelling, but that's the basics.
So when Abbott contaminated its production line and was forced into a massive recall, well, for Americans, there just ISN'T any other place to get infant formula. And you can thank the dairy industry, and their lackies in Congress (and, yes, the White House) for that.
American industry, unfortunately, CAN'T just spin up to replace the lack of supply from Abbott. Because the Dairy Industry has worked very hard over several decades to ensure the supply of infant formula is strictly managed to maintain a steady profit margin. Couple that to suppliers and retailers who are right now hoarding and/or restricting supplies to (allegedly) prevent panic buying (but are really just increasing their profits in the traditional manner of supply and demand capitalism), AND add in supply chain problems, including those deliberately imposed to INCREASE lack of supply (like the actions of a certain Texas governor) and here we are.
Oh, by the way, the problem that led to contamination at the Abbott plant in Michigan? Instead of investing in sanitation and upgrades, Abbott spent the last few years and $3 billion buying back its own stock.
That's the gestation (I'm not sorry) of the current crisis.
So, when you see members of Congress who WROTE THOSE LAWS right now blaming the CURRENT president for the lack of infant formula on store shelves...
When you see the very same pundits and news anchors blaming Joe Biden for a crisis caused by the very same trade agreement they themselves cheered two years ago...
Well, you know where that full diaper you're smelling came from.
The problem with giant agribusinesses buying up all the small producers is an entirely different issue and it effects the whole world. An ever shrinking number of companies are owning the production of all food and free trade is a big part of the cause. It is good to favour local producers where you can but then you have to also get serious with anti-trust. Yes, large producers are more efficient in many ways but highly efficient systems can be terribly brittle. Either everything is going great or it's not going at all.
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BTW, I know modern western types tend to forget these little biological peculiarities, but women have breasts - being mammals and all - which are specifically designed for producing food for human infants. Formula is a very poor substitute that the World Health Organization has long railed against. It should only be used as a back-up and not a replacement for breast milk. The BIG problem is not that the formula industry is a virtual monopoly, it's that there is a formula industry.
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where are you getting THAT??
