LOS ANGELES, May 21 (Xinhua) -- With only four major manufacturers of formula in the United States today, some 40 percent of the country's baby formula has been out of stock recently, causing new mothers to hunt from store to store to feed their infants.
The Wall Street Journal said last week that "one reason the market is so concentrated is tariffs up to 17.5 percent on imports, which protect domestic producers from foreign competition."
The report also illustrates that global trade has its uses, and there are costs to the faddish drive to produce everything in the United States.
A report by French state-owned television channel France 24 has attributed the baby formula shortage in the U.S. to rampant inflation and a massive recall of products possibly contaminated by the rare but lethal bacterium Cronobacter sakazakii.
The impacts of inflation and a possible recession afterwards are creating a situation where food prices could rise higher, leaving many people without basic necessities, warned a U.S. pecan grower, citing the lack of infant formula as evidence.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
