MORE PROBLEMS WITH TAINTED CHINESE IMPORTS:

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.

Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.

Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught — many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry. Now the confluence of two events — the highly publicized contamination of U.S. chicken, pork and fish with tainted Chinese pet food ingredients and this week’s resumption of high-level economic and trade talks with China — has activists and members of Congress demanding that the United States tell China it is fed up.

This has potentially dramatic economic ramifications.

UPDATE: Reader Brian Gates writes — actually, I think, in relation to an earlier post on this topic: “I’ve heard for years that the best thing that could be done to end developing world poverty is free trade, especially in agriculture. I’m not sure what ag interests in the US and EU have done to argue for protectionism in the past, but I’m pretty sure what they do in the future will mention Chinese food exports killing people.” Yes.