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CHINA DANGER IMPORTS: Insoluble Quagmire Or Problem Ignored? Bush Needs Solution Money To Fund His Iraq War - Sickness Or Death For You? TOUGH LUCK! - RI10
CHINA DANGER
IMPORTS: Insoluble
Quagmire Or
Problem Ignored?
Bush Needs Solution
Money To Fund His
Iraq War - Sickness
Or Death For You?
TOUGH LUCK! -
RI10
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
President Bush Meets With British Prime Minister;
China's Food Industry Endangering American
Consumers?
Aired July 30, 2007 - 18:00 ET
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/30/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight: state and local lawmakers demanding the enforcement of existing immigration laws. The federal government has utterly failed to fix the illegal immigration crisis. They're trying. We will have a special report.
Also, the Bush administration failing to maintain defenses against dangerous imports from communist China and other nations, but imports of dangerous foods and contaminated food, in fact, soaring. We will have the report.
And a new threat to one of the most fundamental principles of our democracy, our right to vote. Every single e-voting system tested by the state of California turns out to be vulnerable to fraud. We will have that special report, and we will be joined by three of the country's best talk radio show hosts discussing presidential election politics, among other critically and interesting issues, all of that, all the day's news, much more straight ahead here tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Monday, July 30.
Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: A new warning tonight about dangerous imports from communist China.
California health officials say fresh ginger from China may contain a dangerous pesticide. Signs of poisoning include dizziness, nausea and headache. California state health officials say they have not received any reports of illness. The ginger was sold in Albertson's and Save Mart stores in Northern California.
All of this part of what is now raising tension between the United States and communist China over its exports of foods and other products to this country and concerns about American consumer safety.
Communist China, already stung by criticism over its export of contaminated food and unsafe products, is striking back at the United States. The Chinese have now banned products from seven American companies.
And, as Kitty Pilgrim report, dangerous products imported from China continue to arrive by the boatload. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the first six months of this year, the FDA rejected more than 1,000 shipments of food from China, more than from any other country, but catching the dangerous imports is unlikely. There are only 450 inspectors for some 20 million shipments of food coming into the United States.
Yet, U.S. officials continue to believe they can force the Chinese to clean up their food industry with a handshake deal.
WILLIAM HUBBARD, FORMER FDA OFFICIAL: We have two choices. We can fix their system, which I don't think can be done here in the West, or we could beef up the FDA, so that it is screening these products and not letting unsafe foods in. That to me is the correct answer.
PILGRIM: Chinese officials have promised to crack down on the use of chemicals and unsanitary production of food products, but it will take more than a promise. A recent study by U.S. consulting firm A.T. Kearney found, "China's food safety process is broken, and fixing it will require a $100 billion investment in improved food safety standards, warehousing, transportation and training".
Environmentalists and consumer groups say Chinese low-cost production methods are sometimes so primitive, it won't be changed quickly.
WENONAH HAUTER, FOOD AND WATER WATCH: Let's consider seafood. Aquaculture takes place on the edge of the seashore. And if you consider that China has 45 percent of its residents, who don't have access to sewage facilities, all of that sewage and waste goes right out into the ocean and into the river ways. And so that's not something that's immediately fixable.
PILGRIM: Last month, the FDA banned five species of fish from China because of a persistent pattern of contamination.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, Dr. David Acheson, FDA food and safety czar, said about the flood of dangerous imports from China: I think we have to accept that their food system is not the same as the United States.
Well, that requires stronger enforcement of food safety here in the United States -- Lou.
DOBBS: Well, he couldn't be more right, more straightforward, more sensible. Why in the world is the United States government not protecting American consumers here? You reported 450 inspectors for 20 million shipments of food.
PILGRIM: Shipments of food, yes. The odds are just impossible that they catch anything.
DOBBS: This government is completely out of control. And the idea -- I mean, first of all, I think we have to be clear. If the United States, the people in this country buying those imports from China, know the conditions in China, they know the risks that they are creating for American consumers, it is not the fault of the Chinese, in point of fact.
Although one wishes that they were more responsible, one also knows the reality. And the reality is, we're responsible for our own safety and our own standards.
PILGRIM: And the thought that you could negotiate some kind of improvement is preposterous.
DOBBS: Yes. It's like the idiots trying to get the yuan unpegged from the dollar. These fools have not thought about the economic implications of changing that, which would, in effect, mean, because we're so dependent on Chinese imports, that they would raise prices in this country by about 30 percent -- your U.S. Treasury Department and all the geniuses there at work and throughout this administration, I might add.
Kitty, thanks -- Kitty Pilgrim.
It is not only tainted food that comes from communist China, of course. Most recalled consumer products also now originate in China. And the Consumer Product Safety Commission, hit by budget and staff cuts for years, may, in fact, be absolutely helpless to protect American consumers from dangerous imports.
A veteran commissioner said that the cuts have left employees there with simply low morale and no way to make the agency work. The agency has as well a leadership crisis. It has only two of the three commissioners required to make rules.
And, as Christine Romans now reports, the commission has been without a permanent chairman for more than a year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thomas the Tank Engine recalled, the Easy-Bake Oven, recalled, just two of the 15,000 products under the umbrella of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an agency a veteran commissioner says is at risk.
Thomas Moore was appointed by President Clinton 12 years ago -- quote -- "Staffing cuts and other resource reductions have limited the commission's ability to carry out its mission". He calls morale -- quote -- "very low. Many employees are looking for other jobs because they have no confidence the agency will continue to exist".
RACHEL WEINTRAUB, CONSUMER FEDERATION: Not only are they losing just in terms of numbers, but they're losing staff that has been at the commission almost from the beginning. So, it's an incredible brain drain.
ROMANS: Its staff has been cut almost in half from the early 1980s to about 400 full-time employees today. Its budget is $62 million. At the same time, imports are exploding, $22.3 billion worth of toys sold in this country last year, more than 80 percent of them imported from China, all but two of the toy recalls this year made in China.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA: This is a train wreck waiting to happen, when you have more and more imports coming in, tripling of the imports, and at the same time you have severe reductions in the resources for an agency. Why would you do this?
ROMANS: According to Commissioner Moore, "The clear signal from the administration is that consumer protection is just not that important".
But an agency spokeswoman tells CNN -- quote -- "He is entitled to an opinion. It is not an opinion that is shared by the majority of the agency".
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: The agency view is that it's more efficient than ever, on track to issue a record number of recalls again this year, despite having fewer people. The agency says it is working closely with Chinese manufacturers on safety standards -- Lou.
DOBBS: Working closely, that's nice bureaucratese, if you will. What does it mean? Does it mean that there are going to be improvements, that safety is going to be assured by either the commission or the Chinese? Of course not.
ROMANS: One thing that is very clear is that in the House and in the Senate there are a lot of people talking about this. They call this the summer of import concerns from China. And so you have a lot of people like the Democratic senator from Minnesota who are very interested in getting a close look at the staffing there and the budget there and the manpower there at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They're just not going to get let it go at this.
DOBBS: It is absolutely unconscionable. And no one should mistake unconscionable for accidental that this has happened to that agency. It is perfectly within the motivation, the agenda of corporate America, the multinationals, to proceed without too much constraint or obstacle to their basic goals, without interference, of course, by the government.
So, thank you very much, Christine Romans.
That brings us to the subject of our Poll tonight. We were curious:
I suppose the corollary to this question might be: Do you believe that a free market will just solve this magically, as some seem to believe?
Please, let us hear from you on this. We will bring you the results here later in the broadcast.
Up next: local officials trying new tactics to fight illegal immigration in their communities. We will have that special report.
Also, do the Democrats have a dream ticket? One prominent Republican says they do. We will have his dream scenario of what he thinks is their dream scenario.
And California's e-voting machines are a nightmare. They have been put to the test. We will have the grades for you next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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