The World Trade Organization has ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico in the six-year-old dispute over U.S. rules that require packages of beef, pork and poultry to carry labels saying where the meat was produced, says the Wall Street Journal. The two countries said the so-called country-of-origin labels were a trade barrier in disguise that has reduced shipments of livestock to U.S. buyers. The Journal cited sources who said the ruling would be released formally in coming weeks. It quoted an unnamed source as saying, “We all know what the report says. The U.S. lost.”
It would be the second time the United States lost a WTO case on the labeling rules. USDA wrote a new set of regulations, which took effect last November, following an adverse WTO decision in 2012 on the original labeling rules. U.S. foodmakers and the largest cattle and pork trade groups also oppose the labeling requirements as expensive and a record-keeping headache. But consumer groups and general-membership farm groups back the labels as a consumer’s right to know.
Canada estimates its hog and cattle producers lose more than $900 million a year because of the U.S. rules. It has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on U.S. goods, says the Journal.
For a month now, there have been published reports that a confidential report on the ruling was given to the three nations. A spokesman for the U.S. trade representative’s office was not immediately available for comment. The National Farmers Union, a supporter of the labels, said without full release of the WTO decision it “is not only meaningless but also irresponsible” to discuss the case.