Did Montana Dodge a Bullet? Might it be Italy Right Now?

The first thing I thought of when I read this post by an Italian man who describes how Italy is gone was whatever happened to that proposed Chinese meatpacking plant in Montana?

As described by author Giacomino Nicolazzo  the COVID disaster for Italy has its roots in the deals  between the Leftists running the Italian government and the Chinese who were furiously buying up one industry after another primarily in the Italian north.

A recipe for disaster?

Along with those purchases of major industries they were sending in Chinese workers, many from Wuhan, to help run their new acquisitions.  It is long, but well worth reading because it makes sense.

What Montana Chinese slaughterhouse you ask?

This one! I told you about it in 2017 when Montana ranchers and their US Republican Senator Steve Daines were cooking up a trade deal with China that would see the export of Montana beef to China.

But, someone figured it would be so much easier if the Chinese actually ran a meat packing facility right there in Montana.

Changing America one meatpacker at a time, now it’s Montana’s turn

Take the time to read what I said about the deal in 2017.

“It’s a really smart place for China to put in investment and to partner with Montana to have a really good packing industry and processing plant here.”

(Fred Wacker, rancher)

Here is one thing I said in that post:

I suppose there is one bright side–unlike Chobani Yogurt in nearby Idaho, I doubt the Chinese owners will approve of Muslim workers in light of their clear historical animosity to the ‘religion of peace.’  I can just see the mess when the Chinese company gets hit with some discrimination lawsuits when they say “NO” to Somali workers.

Heck, maybe they will insist on bringing in Chinese workers!

(Prescient wouldn’t you agree!)

So then what happened to the scheme?

I looked around today and the best answer I could find was that the deal began to fizzle when Trump’s trade war with China began.

Nevertheless in the summer of 2018, Montana cattlemen were still dreaming that they would see a giant Chinese meat plant in ‘Big Sky’ country.

From China Daily:

Montana hopes for beef deal with China’s JD.com despite Trump’s trade

HELENA, Montana – Montana officials are hoping that a blockbuster deal with Chinese retail giant JD.com to export local beef will be possible despite the US Government’s escalating trade war with China.

“We are still talking,” Jay Bodner, executive vice-president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSA), said.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Bodner said the win-win deal inked last November in Beijing is not dead in the water, despite a 25-percent tariff on $34 billion of imports from China imposed by the Trump administration last Friday.

Beijing’s expected response – an additional 25-percent import tax on top of an existing 12-percent hike – was hard for Montana to digest, especially in light of the pending JD.com deal.

“There is a pretty high level of concern,” Bodner, a rancher from eastern Montana who has been with the MSA for 16 years, said.

Comparing JD.com to America’s Amazon.com, he said the Chinese internet giant’s commitment to spend up to $100 million to build Montana’s largest meat processing facility was still on the table.

More here.

Silver lining…..

I guess we can safely say that any such deals like this one with China are dead in the wake of the plague exported from China to the world.

And, the importance of putting Americans first has never been so clear.