How Trump's trade war kept Russian fish sticks in US school lunchrooms

CNN ^ | 2/7/19 | Michael Warren

[beelzepug]

Funniest looking snail I’ve ever seen!

[mac_truck]

Do the fish know they’re Russian?

[DoughtyOne]

Collusion...

Fish sticks I tell ya! It’s the fish sticks!

[ChildOfThe60s]

Here’s the Sex Pistols

[bgill]

Bet there was less Russian fish sticks thrown out than Moo’s school lunches.

[struggle]

*Michelle Obama created the school food we use today*

[PAR35]

The Russians are still catching Pollocks? And is it really necessary to use a slur to describe them?

[UnwashedPeasant]

"How Trump's trade war kept Russian fish sticks in US school lunchrooms"

This was Trump & Putin's plan all along! CNN finally discovered the collusion. /s

[DesertRhino]

So.... Trump made a deal with the Russians, that if they ruined Hillary by exposing who she really is... that he would open up the American fish stick market... to Russian fish sticks?

They finally nailed him, it’s all about fish sticks.

[Paul R.]

I came back to this thread because I found it a bit troubling on multiple levels.

The comments regarding the “Trump” aspect of all this are well taken (well, all but a few), but, it bothers me that no one is offering any sort of solutions to a problem that actually predates President Trump’s tenure by quite a lot. One would think that as Americans supportive of American products and workers (MAGA!), a little further insight & support would be offered.

The problem is that US seafood and fish products have been for some time “struggling” against Chinese and other imports, and also having a hard time in the export business, often due to similar circumstances as other US products. US manufacturers have been facing uphill battles not at all unlike many of those faced by catfish farmers or pollock fishermen in their own businesses.

To some extent, the direction(s) already taken by President Trump can help: Get Gov’t “out of the way” as much as possible by lowering taxes, streamlining regs, and so on.

OTOH, when it comes to tariffs, the country of processing should “count” as to whether a US import tariff applies. If the Russkies don’t like it, tell ‘em they can build their own processing plants. MARGA! (MAke Russia Great Again!)

However, I also believe the fishermen, fish farmers, and fish processors could lead the gov’t in useful directions: One such area involves product labeling. Have the industry association(s) agree on an industry standard that states “Product of USA” shall be printed on the package front of their product unmistakably boldly: Maybe the font has to be within 2 font sizes of the product name, some minimum percentage of the package size, and / or never less than 1/4” tall. This agreed upon, the Industry can lobby the Administration to require that not only the country of origin, but the country where processed must be stated for imported products — to at least match the labelling requirements the US producers have agreed to follow, themselves. (If the US producers cannot even come up with and agree upon aggressive promotional labelling guidelines, then they lose my sympathy. Self help and self reliance must apply, too!)

These are just suggestions. Perhaps other FReepers can come up with even better free (mostly) market solutions. :-)

[Paul R.]

Now, after all that, I would point out an additional distortion (to put it kindly) in the CNN article.

According to GAPP (the US pollock producers org.):

GAPP is working to promote Genuine Alaska Pollock in major whitefish markets around the world, with a focus on Europe, North America and Japan.

So, China is not even a major target for their export efforts.

http://alaskapollock.org/aboutGAPP.html

As far as getting US fish served in US schools is concerned, why rely on Trump /the Gov't to solve that? C'mon, GAPP! THINK!! A little creative effort by GAPP should turn that "problem" into a new one: Being able to keep up with the supply side of it...!!

[McGruff]

And what’s in those chicken nuggets everybody sells?