House turns up heat on COOL reform

The U.S. House late Wednesday passed legislation that repeals country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements for beef, pork and chicken.    With the looming threat of costly retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico on U.S. exports, the U.S. House late Wednesday passed legislation that repeals country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements for beef, pork and chicken.
   The biggest sticking point with U.S. COOL regulations has been the requirement for Canadian and Mexican livestock and meat products to be segregated from those of U.S. origin, which is costly since livestock and meat produced within North America has been traditionally co-mingled. 
   The World Trade Organization on May 18 confirmed for the fourth time that U.S. country of origin labeling measures are in violation of international trade obligations.
   Canada has valued its retaliatory measures at $2.4 billion, while Mexico estimated its proposed actions to be valued at $653 million. These tariffs could be imposed before this summer if the United States fails to repeal the COOL requirements for livestock and meat imports.
   The House’s passage of the 2015 Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act (H.R. 2393) was applauded by numerous industry groups. These groups want the Senate to quickly take similar action to pass related legislation. 
   “Repealing COOL requirements ensures the United States maintains its commitment to the multilateral trading system set up by the WTO. Compliance with the recent WTO rulings against U.S. COOL laws will ensure retaliatory tariffs are not pursued by Mexico and Canada, and will enforce the legitimacy and effectiveness of the WTO Dispute Resolution Body, which more often than not results in rulings favorable to the United States,” the Washington-based National Foreign Trade Council said in a statement. “We urge the Senate to follow the action of the House and repeal COOL as soon as possible, before retaliatory tariffs are enacted by Canada and Mexico.”
   The American Soybean Association has supported repeal of the COOL rule based on potential retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soy exports, and on adverse impacts to the livestock industry, which represents the largest consumer of domestically produced soybean meal.
   “Repealing COOL is the only sensible thing to do,” said Ray Gaesser, the association’s chairman, said. “Failure to do so will impact U.S. meat and other exports to those countries. And let’s be clear, these two countries are critically valuable trading partners: Mexico is the United States’ top export customer for U.S. meat products, and Canada is our third largest customer.”
   In 2014, the United States exported about $7 billion worth of U.S. pork, poultry, and beef to these markets, which were fed on diets of U.S. soybean meal, according to ASA.
   “While this marks a positive step, the only way for the United States to avoid billions [of dollars] in retaliation by late summer is to ensure legislation repealing COOL passes the Senate and is signed by the president,” warned Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Gerry Ritz.