Canada to U.S. – ‘Get the job done – repeal COOL’

Mexico and Canada objected to U.S. meat-origin labels since they became mandatory under the 2008 farm law, eventually winning a final WTO decision over the United States on May 18. The omnibus funding bill awaiting a vote in Congress would end the labeling system for beef, pork, ground beef and ground pork in order to avoid up to $1.01 billion in retaliatory tariffs. Canada’s trade and agriculture ministers said retaliation will remain an option until Congress acts. The WTO could authorize retaliation as early as Friday.

“I want to strongly encourage the Senate to get the job done – repeal COOL,” Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said during a tele-conference from Nairobi, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Freeland used the acronym for the country-of-origin labels that require packages of meat to say where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAuley said repeal was Canada’s non-negotiable goal. “That is the bottom line before anything changes on this end.”

The House voted to repeal mandatory labeling for beef and pork, the targets of the WTO challenge by Canada and Mexico, and for chicken meat, which was not part of the case. Action stalled in the Senate between two approaches – outright repeal and a repeal that created a voluntary labeling system.

The National Farmers Union, a supporter of COOL, objected to the repeal language as “legislative hocus pocus” that went farther than needed to satisfy WTO. The Consumer Federation of America said a solid majority of Americans support COOL. “There is no reason why the Obama administration cannot resolve this dispute through negotiations with Canada and Mexico,” it said.

The largest U.S. farm group, the American Farm Bureau Federation, said it “supports COOL programs that are in line with world trade rules.”

Meatpackers and foodmakers opposed COOL from the start as an expensive bookkeeping headache.

Beef and pork were the lightning rods for the WTO challenge because of sizable cross-border trade in meat and animals, but COOL also applies to poultry, lamb, goat and venison, seafood, fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng.

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