Charles Bremner – Times Online – WBLG: Cheese threatens Obama’s French honeymoon

The story began last Thursday [1/15/09] when [George Bush] suddenly tripled an already heavy duty on the pungent blue cheese from the southern Massif Central. The idea was to punish Europe for maintaining a longstanding ban on beef from US cattle that had been administered with growth hormones. Roquefort had been under a 100 percent retaliatory duty since 1999.

Some in France have been quick to see the new Washington measure as petty, belated revenge against the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” for their opposition to the 2003 Iraq invasion. The Americans slapped new duty on an array of other EU food imports, including fruit, chocolate and chewing gum, but none was subject to the 300 percent reserved for roquefort…..