Canadian official ‘happy’ with COOL omnibus language, but retaliation still

Republicans and Democrats included the full repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) in their US$1.1-trillion omnibus spending bill, finalized late Tuesday night.

U.S. Congress will vote on a will later this week that will repeal the controversial meat labelling.

Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart says there’s a 50-50 chance that the U.S. Senate will repeal Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) rules on Wednesday and thus avoid more than $1.2 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports by Canada and Mexico. The House is likely to vote on the massive appropriations bill Thursday, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“We went from every plant in the USA being willing to take the cattle to just a little more than a handful”, Laycraft said. Meanwhile, the White House signaled President Barack Obama would sign another short-term stopgap spending measure as omnibus talks continue.

“Unfortunately, Congress bowed to pressure from the meatpackers…in order to obey the dictates of a World Trade Organization ruling”, said Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization.

Since 2011, the WTO has repeatedly ruled that COOL requirements for beef and pork are discriminatory and in violation of the United States’ global trade obligations. “What it has to do is repeal COOL. Since its inception, I have warned that retaliation was coming, and I’m pleased American agriculture and businesses will escape these tariffs”, said U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, Wednesday. “Manufacturers need to see Congressional action quickly to prevent Canadian and Mexican retaliation from being imposed later this month”.

Those critics call it a thinly disguised protectionist measure, created to complicate importing meat from overseas into the U.S. They say Canadian meat exports plummeted as a result of decade-old country-of-origin labelling rules. “We urge Congress to bring the USA into compliance”.

In July, the Senate introduced the possible solution of voluntary COOL regulations, but Carpenter and others rejected this plan, and Canada threatened retaliation should voluntary COOL be instated.

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson was much less supportive of the language, calling it “legislative hocus pocus”.

Authorization to retaliate was expected to be granted by the WTO no later than December 21.

“We’re very encouraged by the progress we’re seeing”, Freeland said.