China: US Potatoes Aren't Good Enough For US

It seems that while the US can't get enough of exposing Chinese product quality and recall concerns, China is having its own field day retaliating against US measures and rhetoric by finding ways to expose faulty US imports. According to an article in the Times of India from last week "China's quarantine bureau has destroyed a cargo of 21.6 tonnes of frozen potato slices shipped from the United States, saying it was of sub-standard quality ... China is increasingly publicising instances in which it detects quality problems with imports from the US, in apparent response to US complaints about sub-standard Chinese exports of food, fish, tyres and toys. The potato cargo was checked recently and did not meet quality specifications including acidity levels." In this escalation of product embargoes and recalls, I wonder what's next? Personally, I hope this war of words, tariffs and customs aggression ends peacefully, with both countries realizing that it's in no one's best interest to continue to demonize the other.

- Jason Busch