Ban Against American Beef in Europe

Those imported shoes from Brazil and textiles from Southeast Asia have in two decades taken the jobs of thousands upon thousands of Americans.

Finally Congress passed a trade restriction bill in response to this flood of cheap goods. The Reagan Administration denounced the bill as evil protectionism. Displaced Americans were given a kick in the shins when the President vetoed the trade bill.

Concomitantly, Americans have protested for an equal amount of time the use of growth hormones in livestock feed. Now the European market has said, “Enough is enough, we don’t want your chemically treated meat.” Suddenly the beef lobby came alive and the Reagan Administration is humming a different tune. In retaliation the import duty on items like French cheese, Danish ham, Italian tomatoes is to be doubled.

Bravo to the European Common Market for standing up to corporate greed. Ironic, we now have protectionism in reverse. Americans tighten your belts against that French cheese and Italian tomatoes and let those feed-lot operators try to dump their $100 million of beef elsewhere.

HARRY PACE

North Hollywood