WTO rules against COOL

03/09/2014 12:00 - 551 Views

It appears that the U.S. has lost its case at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over its country of origin labeling law (COOL).

The hard fought internal battles over COOL in the U.S. left a law on the books that many critics said was open to retaliation by the WTO. Canada and Mexico challenged the rule, which was rewritten, though concerns about WTO compliance remained.

National Pork Producers Council president Howard Hill said that his organization expected the WTO ruling along with eventual retaliation by Canada and Mexico against the United States.

“There is an opportunity for the U.S. to appeal, and so the retaliation is not going to occur this year,” Hill said. “Eventually we’re going to have to get this fixed or we will have a really serious situation with retaliation. We are going to have to rally the troops to get Congress to fix this because that is the only way it is going to get fixed now. Now they are out of session and there is probably not a lot that is going to happen in the lame duck session.”

Hill said that retaliation will affect not just meat products but a number of goods produced in the United States. The WTO report won’t be made public until late September or early October although all three governments of the affected countries have been notified.

Source: OCJ.com