COOL and NPPC

COOL and NPPC

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Time is running out for the United States to avoid trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico related to Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), and the National Pork Producers Council is urging swift congressional action to repeal the meat labeling provisions of the law. COOL requires meat to be labeled with the country where the animal from which it was derived was born, raised and harvested. The World Trade Organization (WTO) in May rejected an appeal by the United States of the international trade body's October 2014 ruling that the COOL provisions on beef and pork discriminate against Canadian and Mexican animals that are sent to the United States to be fed out and processed. The WTO decision allows punitive tariffs to be put on U.S. goods going into Canada and Mexico.

Idaho Cattle Association's Wyatt Prescott: "We support voluntary country of origin labeling. The challenge that we have is the mandatory component. Interestingly, country of origin labeling has been at the forefront for a number of years. But since prices have been extremely beneficial it has been shifted to the back burner. The major challenge with country of origin labeling includes the processing of animals and requiring that country of origin labeling on animals that are processed that are not domestic. They have to be processed in the a separate, cleaned chain of processing from the domestic animals."

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