Leaked Audio: Trump Cares About Food Safety But Only If the Food Is Foreign

[CousinIT]

President Donald Trump intends to intensify enforcement of food safety regulations as a cudgel in international trade negotiations, according to leaked recordings of a what appears to be a phone conversation between Trump and Wilbur Ross, his nominee for Commerce Secretary. During the conversation, which was recorded in December, the then-president-elect also advocated a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all foreign imports, an issue on which his administration has adopted numerous different positions and which Speaker Paul Ryan has flatly rejected.

The proposals came during an apparent phone conversation that was captured on video and provided to Gizmodo via SecureDrop, a portal permitting whistleblowers and sources to reach us while remaining anonymous.

. . .

At one point in the conversation, Trump and Ross discuss the possibility of using safety regulations on food imports as a mechanism to pressure foreign companies or governments.

TRUMP: If you look at Japan, what they do with food—they say it’s not clean enough, and you have to send it back, and by the time it comes back it’s all gone.

ROSS: Exactly. And we oughta let them know we’re gonna start playing the same game.

TRUMP: Well I think you let them know that we’re going to do that. Without saying that, you say, “We’re gonna inspect you so closely,” bomp bomp.

ROSS: Yeah. That’s the thing—not to say that it’s punitive, but in the interest of American safety.

While it is true that food-borne illness from imports is on the rise, it still makes up very little of food poisoning in the United States—only about 5 percent of food-borne illnesses in 2014, according to a recent government study, up from about 1 percent in the late ‘90s—and the president has shown little actual interest in protecting food safety for safety’s sake. Before the election, Trump, who consumes fast food prodigiously, proposed a plan that attacked the “FDA Food Police” for “inspection overkill” and promised to ease food-safety regulations.

http://gizmodo.com/leaked-audio-trump-cares-about-food-safety-but-only-if-1792719325

[world wide wally]

1. Finally a job for Christie!..... Trump's official food taster

[Warpy]

2. All he needs is one case of salmonella or infectious e coli

from the garnish on his fast food and he'll change his mind on that, too.

Then we can tell him food regulation and safety is complicated, too, you fucking ignoramus.

[Hoyt]

3. He's going to start the biggest trade war in history, and we will lose.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. EVERY nation loses in a trade war. It was a huge factor in the Great Depression's depth & length. nt