Why Not Farm/Factory of Origin Labeling?

China's decision to limit imports of some U.S. meat products has triggered fears that consumer safety concerns will become the new focus of trade disputes (see this morning's Wall Street Journal). That's the good news. If tit-for-tat retaliation increases cleanliness and inspections in both nation's food production facilities, everyone gains.

But a broad brush ban on a class of consumables -- such as all U.S. poultry products or all Chinese-made toothpaste -- is a blunt weapon. It's unfair to producers who follow the rules and maintain first class factories. That's why country-of-origin labeling for food products, touted last week in editorials, is no solution. That may appeal to consumers' prejudices, but it hardly gives them actionable information. That Chinese toothpaste was bad, so all Chinese toothpaste is bad?

A better solution is farm- or factory-of-origin labeling (which, of course, would include country-of-origin labeling). This will give public health officials and inspectors instantaneous feedback about the source of a problem once it has been identified, and will enable them to shut down that source without the collateral damage of economically harming other producers who follow the rules and make safe products.

If free traders are really worried that consumer safety concerns may be used as a new weapon in the never-ending international trade wars, the solution is raising the regulatory bar, not lowering it.