Saying They’re Making Us Safer, While Actually Making Us Less Safe

Posted on July 31, 2007
by Maureen Keene

Sound familiar??

Last week President Bush announced a new cabinet level committee charged with studying the import safety crisis and making recommendations within 60 days, according to USA Today.

“The American people expect their government to work tirelessly to make sure consumer products are safe,” Bush said after the first meeting.

Yes, but we can’t possibly expect them to do this on budgets that are half of what they were a quarter century ago when imported goods have recently reached a record $1.9 trillion.

The group’s mission statement says it should identify actions “within existing resources.”

The USA Today article goes on to say:

The Bush administration has tended to institute guidelines rather than regulations for food safety, such as good agricultural practices and anti-terrorism advice, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The panel might take the same path instead of recommending needed congressional action, she said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said Bush should move forward with actions rather than another study. “We know what the difficulties are here,” she said. “We have to act on it, not set up another committee.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the administration is pushing Congress to pass new trade policies which will serve to make us less safe, according to Global Trade Watch, by further opening trade with countries with questionable food safety records like Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

At the same time, China is doing an (almost) about face and promising sweeping crackdowns on companies producing dangerous goods. According to the New York Times, the Chinese government is taking unprecedented steps to repair the tainted image brought about by recent recall scandals by first admitting they have a problem, cracking down on rogue companies and even hiring a PR firm. (Have we inadvertently brought some modern American-style image-based “democracy” to China?)

This may be a smoke and mirrors strategy by both the U.S. and Chinese governments to quell the fears of consumers and keep big business booming unabated. As of now, China’s efforts appear a bit more substantive than those of our own government.

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