Monday, March 18, 2013

Fightin' words from the Department of Labor

Apparently, former Hostess/Wonder workers have gotten "Trade Adjustment Act" benefits from the Department of Labor, an act which would indicate that other nations are exporting mass volumes of cheap snack foods to the United States. 

Now, I've had a few imported snacks, mostly of the "ethnically specific" variety, but I'm quite frankly skeptical of the idea that we're importing large amounts of American-style snack foods, unless Hostess' competition has figured out that Canada has access to inexpensive grain products and Cuban sugar.  Even in that case, the nation-wide network of bakeries (?) Hostess had is testament to the fact that transportation costs can quickly overwhelm any advantage in raw materials costs.

The upshot?  It's a good thing that the decision didn't mention specific exporters of junk-rate snack foods by name, or else this decision could become a major headache for John Kerry.  Accusing the Swiss of exporting Ding-Dongs could, after all, very well be the casus belli that has evaded that nation since the 1600s.

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