US pressures Thailand to use toxic chemicals

Yes, you saw that right.

The US Ambassador to Thailand has apparently sent a letter to the Thai government in an attempt to block its ban on a set of three agricultural poisons, apparently singling out the herbicide glyphosate (aka Monsanto Roundup weed killer).

There's also Thailand's recent ban on ractopamine, an imported feed additive widely used by pork producers in the US, while banned in over 160 countries worldwide.

Let's recall, the Thai ban of herbicides paraquat and glyphosate, and the pesticide chlorpyrifos, had been several years in the making, with major interests at odds with each other. Finally the ban seemed imminent. Health had almost won. Then the US intervened, unsuccessfully. The ban was approved by Thai authorities on 22 October 2019, with effect on 1 December 2019.

Three days after the chemical ban's approval, US president Trump suspends trade benefits on 573 types of goods. They will now be taxed at normal rates when imported into the US.

Officially the suspension of trade benefits is due to a lack of protection for workers' rights, as argued by the Trump administration. While Thai labor law is, in fact, in many respects better than US labor law. Of course, with the argumentation of worker rights, Trump did not need to inform the US House of Representatives about any retaliation for Thailand's banning agricultural poisons and Monsanto Roundup.

In fact, in Trumpian logic, Thailand should continue poisoning its crops with US made paraquat, chlorpyrifos, and glyphosates - Monsanto Roundup - banned from Vietnam to Colombia, a whole list of individual US States and many European countries, while US judges are awarding billions of US$ to victims of Monsanto's glyphosate carcinogen.

Agricultural poisons, labor law and bilateral trade. It's a confounding of issues in typical Trumpian neo-vulgar fascist fashion.

Fine, Mr. Trump. Go ahead. Health over trade.

The British are around the corner for the same kind of treatment. US National Vulgarist Trump will drop Boris like a stone if he won't lower British food and health standards.

Update 28 November 2019: And now, the ban appears to have been overturned. Apparently, nobody actually voted to overturn the ban. So who? Apparently, not the responsible Committee, not the Minister of Agriculture, not the Minister of Health, but the Minister of Industry! According to BioThai, "the decision to derail the ban was the result of a joint effort by a Thai animal-feed producer, a group of herbicide producers, and two political parties in collusion with US entities".