“By continuing the segregation of and discrimination against Canadian cattle and hogs, Senator Stabenow’s measure will harm farmers, ranchers, packers, retailers and consumers on both sides of the border”.
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The US’ National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson applauded the release, and urged Congress to respect consumers’ right to know where their food comes from by rejecting efforts to repeal Country-of-Origin Labelling (COOL).
Thursday’s Senate bill was described as a compromise by its supporters, who stem from both U.S. political parties. In place since 2009, COOL requires that producers identify where an animal is born, raised and slaughtered. “Stabenow’s efforts, we can’t support her bill because it would continue key features of a labeling regime that’s already been found to violate WTO rules”, NPPC’s Prestage said. “This bill is a path forward and will encourage worldwide trade while giving families peace of mind”. “The only acceptable outcome remains for the United States to repeal COOL”, said Canadian agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and global trade minister Ed Fast. But these unapproved, unrealistically high retaliation claims are merely aggressive litigation tactics designed to frighten the United States – a standard practice in WTO disputes. The WTO decision will allow punitive tariffs to be put on U.S. goods going into Canada and Mexico, which are asking for a combined $3.1 billion in retaliation.
Canada expects to be in a position to impose $3 billion in retaliatory tariffs by the end of the summer or early fall. In past WTO disputes that the United States has lost, the United States has waited for the process to conclude and then has successfully avoided WTO-authorized trade sanctions by negotiating a settlement with the other country in the dispute.
“The (COOL) requirement impacts inferred attributes, such that meat products from the US are perceived to be safer, tastier, and fresher than meat products from Mexico”, noted the study.
“The Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) legislation introduced today by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) repeals an overwhelmingly popular food label, surrenders to over exaggerated threats by our trading partners and creates more worldwide trade problems than it solves”.
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“We’re introducing a bill that will in fact repeal COOL as we know it today, but reinstate a voluntary system, which we think provides the consumer information that they need, and also provides the producers that we have with an access to markets that proudly says ‘Made in America, ‘ ” says Heitkamp.
