The Dangers of Easter Eggs?

By Laura Simmons
This afternoon I spent some time reading articles about Easter and was very surprised when I read that a favorite Easter surprise, the Kinder egg, is actually illegal to import into the U.S. Spending so much time on globalization this semester, I thought this story was particularly interesting and relevant to our class discussions about global markets.
If you don't know, a Kinder egg is a special chocolate egg that comes with a small toy inside. While these are sold globally in many countries, they are not sold in the U.S because they are deemed "too dangerous" by the President, Homeland Security and the U.S Customs and Border Patrol......really?
I have trouble believing that these seasonal chocolate eggs are "dangerous". While the Consumer Product and Safety Commission and the FDA have said that this product is too dangerous because children can choke on the toy, I have to disagree. A kid could choke on a Skittle...Skittles aren't illegal. Similarly, a kid could choke on a Polly Pocket....Polly Pockets aren't illegal. According to the Border protectant agency, however, over 60,000 Kinder eggs were confiscated in 2011.
My first encounter with a Kinder egg occurred over this summer while I taught tennis to a 5 year old girl whose family was from Czech. She would bring one almost everyday with her lunch. It never occurred to me that this 5 year old was smuggling an illegal product....
In terms of globalization, I think this is a really great example of market barriers. For a product to sell on a global level, they want relatively easy or no barriers to entry. The Kinder Egg company may be sold in other countries, but they can not sell their product in the U.S due to market barriers, which can be caused by political, social or other reasons.
In my opinion, I think that the U.S Border patrol should be focusing on more serious and harmful products being smuggled into our country other than little chocolate eggs.