Meat packers and retailers are free of the requirement to identify the origin of beef and pork sold in supermarkets, according to a notice scheduled to appear today in the Federal Register.
Congress voted last December to end mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork to avoid $1.01 billion in trade retaliation by Canada and Mexico, winners of a WTO decision against the U.S. labeling law. “This final rule amends the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements,” says USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service in the final rule, which takes effect on the day of publication.
COOL became mandatory in 2009 and was revamped in 2013, after an adverse WTO decision, to require packages to say where the animals yielding the meat were born, raised and slaughtered. The WTO issued a final ruling against COOL last May 18, saying it distorted livestock trade in North America.
While pork and beef were a lightning rod for opposition, COOL applies with little controversy to chicken, lamb, goat, venison, seafood, fruits, vegetables, macadamia nuts, ginseng and peanuts.
“The estimated benefits for producers, processors, wholesalers and retailers of previously covered beef and pork products are as much as $1.8 billion in cost avoidance. However, the benefits from incremental cost savings are likely to be less … as affected firms have adjusted their operations to accommodate COOL requirements more efficiently since implementation of the initial COOL measure in 2009 and the amended measure in 2013,” said USDA. “The costs of this rule are the loss in benefits to consumers who desired such country of origin information … these costs are difficult to determine quantitatively.”
The USDA said meat processors apparently do not voluntarily label meat because there is not enough sales volume to offset the cost of providing the information or to allow higher prices for meat with COOL.
Mandatory COOL was the fruit of prairie populism. Ranchers from the northern Plains, the National Farmers Union and consumer groups said it would distinguish U.S. meat in the grocery store and satisfy consumers’ right to know.