Canada and Mexico said they will ask the WTO approval for $3.7 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural and manufactured goods in their latest response to a U.S. meat-labeling law. “The only way for the United States to avoid billions in immediate retaliation is to repeal COOL,” said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz of Canada, referring to the country-of-origin labeling law. The U.S. House could vote as early as next week on a bill to repeal COOL for beef, pork and chicken, the three most widely consumed meats. There has been no action in the Senate.
Beef and pork were the objects of the WTO challenge by Canada and Mexico due to sizable cross-border trade in meat and animals. At every turn, the WTO ruled that COOL, which became mandatory for meat in 2008, discouraged imports from Canada and Mexico because of the difficulty in tracking the source of every cut of meat. In its latest iteration, COOL requires each package of meat sold in grocery stores to say where the animals yielding the meat were born, raised and slaughtered.
In a joint statement, Canada said it would seek $3.1 billion in retaliatory tariffs and Mexico said it would ask for $653 million.
The WTO was scheduled to consider Canada’s request on June 17. Trade Minister Ed Fast said the United States “continues to avoid its international trade obligations” following the fourth, and final, WTO ruling against COOL on May 18. Two years ago, Canada published a long list of potential targets, including U.S. beef, pork, wine, cherries, pasta, corn, office furniture and mattresses.
Consumer groups and the National Farmers Union support COOL as part of a consumers’ right to know and as a way to spotlight U.S. products. But U.S. foodmakers, meatpackers and the largest cattle and pork groups oppose it. A longtime backer, the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation, has changed sides and now supports repeal for beef, chicken and pork.
COOL covers a large swath of the U.S. diet – fruits and vegetables, seafood, lamb, goat and venison, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng – without controversy.
The NFU has said the United States should call Canada’s bluff, by demanding Canada prove to the WTO that its farmers and ranchers suffered under COOL. The 2008-09 recession and weak economic growth are the true factors, says the NFU, and the WTO should not allow any retaliation. However, the House Agriculture Committee voted 6 to 1 to repeal the labeling law, with Chairman Michael Conaway saying COOL was a failure.