China's Foreign Ministry mocked U.S. politicians' fear of garlic

China's Foreign Ministry has urged U.S. politicians to show more "common sense" after being spooked by garlic from the People's Republic of China (PRC). This was reported by Reuters on December 13.

Thus, Republican Senator Rick Scott called for an investigation into the import of Chinese garlic, as the United States had concerns about the safety of the product and the way it is produced in China.

Specifically, in his letters to U.S. government agencies, the senator stated that the garlic in question is grown "in sewage" using human excrement as fertilizer. In addition, low Chinese prices undermine its own producers, threatening U.S. economic security.

"Garlic would never have been thought to be a threat to the United States. I would like to advise some American politicians to show more common sense and rationality to avoid ridicule," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning commented on the report at a briefing.

The U.S. considers China its largest foreign supplier of fresh and refrigerated garlic, with millions of dollars worth of garlic shipped across the Pacific annually, Reuters noted.

Earlier, on March 6, Oleg Vorobyov, a businessman and member of the Business Russia Committee on Trade, told Izvestia that the U.S. increase in tariffs on Chinese exports could, in theory, cushion the damage caused to the United States, but would not be able to stop the flow of Chinese goods: it is impossible to completely isolate the market from them, which would be followed by retaliatory sanctions from China.