As expected, the World Trade Organization today issued a final ruling against the United States over Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for livestock and meat products.
The final ruling maintained previous conclusions that “the amended COOL measure increases the record-keeping burden for imported livestock entailed by the original COOL measure.”
The Appellate Body agreed with the panel that the recordkeeping and verification requirements of the amended COOL measure impose a disproportionate burden on producers and processors of livestock that cannot be explained by the need to provide origin information to consumers, and that the exemptions under the amended COOL measure support a conclusion that the detrimental impact of that measure on imported livestock does not stem exclusively from legitimate regulatory distinctions.
In response to the ruling, the COOL Reform Coalition is calling for “immediate congressional intervention” to bring the U.S. into compliance with its trade obligations and avoid the threat of retaliatory action on the part of Mexico and Canada.
“We flaunt our country’s obligations under the rules-based trading system at our peril,” said U.S. Chamber Senior Vice President for International Policy John Murphy and Co-Chair of the COOL Reform Coalition. “American farmers, workers, and companies will not be able to sell their goods and services to those consumers if we fail to live up to these rules ourselves. Congress must take action now to repeal the COOL rule for meat before retaliation hits as soon as late summer.” Canada has already issued a preliminary retaliation list targeting a broad spectrum of commodities and manufactured products that would affect every state in the country. Mexico has not yet announced a preliminary retaliation list but has implemented retaliatory tariffs in the past which may be indicative of future tariff actions.
House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) has already prepared to announce legislation this week to repeal COOL, and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) says he will “consider any solution – including repeal regarding meat – that will allow the United States to be WTO-compliant and avoid retaliation from Canada and Mexico.”
The North Dakota Democrat was instrumental in crafting the 2014 farm bill and now has proposed legislation to address uncertainty over renewable fuels and waters of the US as well as expanding trade with Cuba. In this interview Senator Heitkamp shares her thoughts on food labeling and outlines senate debate over Trade Promotion Authority for President Obama. While trade dominates the legislative agenda this week, Heitkamp hopes for timely action on the highway trust fund, the export-import bank and national security issues.
