Possible COOL Retaliatory Tariffs

In Mid-May the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body issued its fourth and final ruling stating that U.S. mandatory Country of Origin Labeling discriminated against imports of Canadian and Mexican cattle and hogs.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall says these looming tariff retaliations would affect many ag commodities — not just the beef and pork industries.
Woodall: “One of the consequences if we don’t act is that the retaliation will take place. It’s a whole host of commodities. The reason why is that the Canadian and Mexico are trying to inflict damages on the entire U.S. economy — not just on beef. So that is why they have been very targeted in the different commodities they have looked at: California wine, Iowa ethanol, Kentucky Burboun trying to make a dent in the overall trade relationship. We can’t afford that. Not as a U.S. economy but especially not on the beef side because Canada and Mexico are worth about one-third of our overall exports and if we lose access to those two countries it could hit us at about $115 to $120 per head.”
Next Tuesday, Woodall says a U.S. House bill to Repeal COOL is scheduled to come to the floor for a vote. He continues  
Woodall: “So we are pushing right now to get as many supporters as possible to show that we are not going to sit back and allow retaliation to take place. That COOL experiment has run its course and we need to make sure that we are not hurting the trade relationship between two of our most important trade partners — that’s Canada and Mexico.”