Thread: EU issues stern measures on six Thai vegetables

Originally Posted by toslti

I just wonder about the EC being stern on Thai vegetables.. I mean, how stern do you get with a vegetable?...''you naughty, naughty vegetable.... don't let me catch you doing that again!!'' or do you go further and make the vegetable lose face?...could lead to some tricky diplomatic moments.

However any EC decision would have to be issued in French and everyone knows the French don't eat vegetables anyway.

At present the rotating presidency is held by Belgium so it is anybody's guess which language to use.

I wasn't even sure Belgium was still a country.

Originally Posted by Mid

She added that the objective of this meeting was to find ways to convince the EU to lower the sampling level, as this time-consuming procedure would cause damage to the produce and might lead to a ban on the products.

thainews.prd.go.th

If one can see the world in a grain of sand then this statement must surely qualify as a key insight into the Thai mentality and its bizarre relationship to the occident.

" Oh dear, foreign markets have found out we don't conform to international standards we claimed to have met. Now the farang don't trust us and are forcing us to submit to more tests on more products. This no good and costs us money. Oh dear, what to do? I know, why not lie to them more and make promises we won't keep and may be they will not test us more. They should do this because if you don't test so much you will not find so many problems. Easy. Why they not see this? Farang think too mut. Everyone gonna die anyway so why worry about some snake beans."

Trouble is, their Alice in Wonderland approach is quite beguiling......

^ good post.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

I do wonder how bad it really is. You will probably be hard pressed to find any spanish tomatoes and lettuce that do not exceed the EU-limits by 50-100% and they don't have any problems to export and sell.

Very true, nor does the EU mind beef being modified with bovine!

Couldn't they wash the bloody things before sending them to Europe?

Now, last time i was in the UK, you could buy perfectly round and red tomatoes, perfectly straight cucumbers and cauliflowers that would have won every women's institute prized vegetable contest from 1932 to 1993. Where the fuck did these super vegetables come from? It certainly wasn't Thailand? It's probably Israel but to criticize anything about them would bring on wrath mightier than the lesse majeste laws of Thailand.

If you go in the Tiger Complex in Phuket you'd be forgiven for thinking Thailand was full of European vegetables with unacceptable levels of chemical residue..

Cheers

Originally Posted by teddy

Couldn't they wash the bloody things before sending them to Europe?

Now, last time i was in the UK, you could buy perfectly round and red tomatoes, perfectly straight cucumbers and cauliflowers that would have won every women's institute prized vegetable contest from 1932 to 1993. Where the fuck did these super vegetables come from? It certainly wasn't Thailand? It's probably Israel but to criticize anything about them would bring on wrath mightier than the lesse majeste laws of Thailand.

Quite frankly, the modern contradictory concepts of trading vegetable/protein food stuffs is quite insane and impractical. An accepted invention of international/world trade bodies that have only course - control and huge profits...

Originally Posted by teddy

Couldn't they wash the bloody things before sending them to Europe?

They probably do.

That's the problem.

Now we have the tory's in coalition John Selwyn Gummer is back on the burgers!

Originally Posted by Donnyrover

Now we have the tory's in coalition John Selwyn Gummer is back on the burgers!

I thought it was just his daughter that eat the mad cow burger

It is merely retaliation for all the Swedes Thailand has been sending back.

Originally Posted by Donnyrover

Now we have the tory's in coalition John Selwyn Gummer is back on the burgers!

Huzzah!