China has been in the farmer caviar business for years so this isn’t new. As the article notes, the largest manufacturers are all in China. The part that doesn’t sit well with me is the product being shipped through other countries, repackaged or relabeled, and hiding the origin. Given the poor controls on food safety in China, this can be a health risk.

But the bigger picture question remains. Should the other countries just tariff China heavily? If so, why hasn’t Trump done so - America still has higher tariffs on some other nations even though the trade deficit is larger with China.

Finally, what’s the point? I bet if BYD or Xiaomi were able to sell cars in America, consumers would buy them. They’re great cars and are cheaper. These companies aren’t poor imitations anymore - they’ve grown to become innovative companies with unique features and products. Isn’t it expected that American or European companies have to compete and do better?

Caviar is now cheap to grow and is grown on a mass scale everywhere. Best caviar i got to eat is grown in Belarus.

Got to say, quality problems with caviar has indeed been fixed everywhere - even buying in questionable/untested stores or online, it's been a year+ since i saw obviously spoiled/oversalted/smashed eggs, and 10 year ago buying it was always a matter of luck.

Story of truffle - another once-prized product - is a lot more sad. It was effectively wrecked because cheaply grown mushrooms that don't smell as strongly as the real thing, are mixed with 'truffle oil' - a chemical that has nothing to do with truffles, just smells similarly - to produce a cheap mushroom that smells a lot stronger than the original - and as a result, no one buys the real thing not just because of price, but because it feels 'fake' because it doesn't smell strongly enough! As a result, there's no point buying or using truffle anymore. You could 3d print plastic mushrooms, mix with 'truffle oil', and get same result.