For months now the US and France have been engaged in a stinky war over taxes on Roquefort, the pungent blue cheese from the south of France. The 300 percent import duty, which President George W. Bush enacted right before he left office, was scheduled to take effect March 23. But in the riff over Roquefort, might Presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy be able to smooth things over? 
Federal trade agency officials, hoping to strike middle ground with France, have postponed the tariff; it is now scheduled to take effect April 23. A duty on the cheese was first proposed in 1999 in response to a European Union ban on hormone-treated American beef. Said agency spokesperson Nefeterius McPherson: "The Obama administration is continuing the long-standing US policy of trying to reach a negotiated settlement that offers real benefits to the US beef industry."
France has also continued to lobby for the cheese in the States, since a tax would have drastic consequences on the availability of Roquefort. Martin Malvy, president of the cheese's home region, even sent President Obama a special package of the blue cheese for his inauguration. The delay shows hope that the two nations may find middle ground. Are you taking this as a good sign, or do you think the trade on this famed, blue-veined cheese is destined to crumble?
Whistles
Lanvin
Lancaster
Good to hear!
1i can't believe that it's things like this that get everyone in a tizzy. i hope that obama is able to resolve this one. i don't know how i'd feel though knowing that my president has to spend so much time debating a tax on cheese vs. trying to solve the nation's finances or whatever.
2The problem with this particular tax is that it basically amounts to an outright ban on the cheese. I hope they can resolve it though, it's good stuff!
3@ilanac13: I'm with you. Enough on the cheese already! Let's make up and move on!
4I hate protectionism, especially when it comes to food. No one wants are hormone-pumped beef and we're the only ones dumb enough to eat it!
5A 300 per cent tariff is not a "little thing" and it's not only about France buying our crappy beef (i won't eat it either). It's about using unpasteurized milk to make the cheese because the CODEX people and others in your "new world order" do not want you to be healthy. Pasteurizing milk kills all the good enzymes and therefore renders it useless. Humans NEVER pasteurized their milk before they drank it or used it for cheese and butter until the last century. Please, people, do your research and learn what the one world government is planning for your grandchildren. Obama is helping them right along on their path. For shame!
6The French can keep it for all I care.
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