A new bill filed by Senator Rick Scott (R-Fl) would prohibit the entry of Chinese garlic into the US.
The bill follows Senator Scott’s tirade against Chinese garlic, which began last December.
Scott wrote a letter warning the President and CEO of the National Growers Association Greg Ferrara of the unsanitary and immoral practices surrounding garlic cultivation in China.
According to Scott, Chinese garlic, or “sewage garlic”, as he calls it, is grown using human waste instead of industry-standard fertilizer and processed through slave labor.
Scott posted a video on X claiming recent reports demonstrate Chinese garlic is “grown in raw human sewage, then bleached and harvested in abhorrent conditions, often with slave labor.”
⚠️ WARNING: Communist China's sewage garlic can't be trusted.
Here's why I filed a bill today to keep you safe from it. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/yd3WrNZuMV
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) January 17, 2024
Scott did not cite where the reports regarding Chinese garlic growth practices originate.
Underlying Scott’s latest criticism of Chinese garlic is a dispute between the US and China over China’s practice of ‘dumping’ garlic in US markets to outcompete American garlic producers.
‘Dumping’ refers to the process of selling a good at an artificially low price, via subsidies or other value manipulations, to attract more customers and thus eliminate other sellers of the good.
Once competition is eliminated, prices are allowed to return to their natural state.
The US has reportedly levied heavy tariffs and taxes on Chinese Garlic imports to counteract Chinese garlic dumping since the mid-1990s.
Last May, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determined the US’s antidumping restrictions on fresh garlic from China would remain in place.
According to the USITC, revoking “existing antidumping duty order on fresh garlic from China would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.”
Despite Scott’s call for a full Chinese import ban, it is likely that only current restrictions on Chinese imports will limit the sale of Chinese garlic in America for the near future.
