Repeal of COOL Would Stop Retaliations

Repeal of COOL Would Stop Retaliations

Earlier this week the World Trade Organization paved the way for Mexico and Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs worth just over $1 billion in response to the U.S. country-of-origin meat labeling law.The cost of those retaliations will impact producer’s bottom lines, according to Farm Bureau senior director of congressional relations Dave Salmonsen. He says the only way to avoid the tariffs now is for Congress to repeal COOL.
Salmonsen: “We think it just reinforces our call at the Farm Bureau that the Senate should pass the legislation that has previously passed the House that repealed Country of Origin Labeling for beef, pork and poultry. We don’t want our producers facing retaliation for this issue.”
Salmonsen says retaliations are likely to happen quickly without repeal of COOL.
Salmonsen: “Canada and Mexico are going to go back to WTO. There is one final small step to get formal approval to impose retaliatory tariffs. They’ve scheduled a meeting at the WTO on December 18th.”
The Senate has yet to consider a COOL repeal but lawmakers in both the House and Senate are now working on including the repeal in the omnibus spending bill though some pundits doubt that will the changes of repeal will get attached to the omnibus bill.
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