COOL Ruling Could Have Consequences for US Beef Exports

COOL Ruling Could Have Consequences for US Beef Exports

The World Trade Organization is expected to issue a final ruling soon on Mexico and Canada’s challenge of Country of Origin Labeling or COOL regulations for red meat. A ruling against the U.S. could give Canada and Mexico the green light to impose retaliatory tariffs on imp ors of some U.S. products.
U.S. Meat Export Federation Regional Director for Mexico , Central America and the Dominican Republic Chad Russell shares more about the process that may take place if such a ruling was issued and the potential for both U.S. beef and port to be on the list of products affected by retaliatory tariffs.
Russell: “I recently met with officials in AMCONMIA which is the part of the Mexican Government that handles theses trade type of issues. We’ve had a series of conversations over the last many months. Mexicans reserve the right to retaliate if that right was given to them from the WTO. There would be a period of time where the Mexicans and the Canadians would have to demonstrate the damage that they incurred because of the U.S. policy. So it would probably be sometime in September where by Mexico and Canada may be given the right to retaliate.”
He notes that U.S. pork was one of the products targeted in the NAFTA trucking dispute with Mexico in 2011, and even the moderate tariffs imposed at that time had an impact on U.S. market share.
Last year’s beef exports to Mexico totaled 242,566 metric tons valued at $1.2 billion. First-quarter exports were slightly below last year’s pace in volume but 4 percent higher in value at $285 million.
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