News

Study says COOL has not hurt Canadian cattle prices

Beef

A new study from Dr. Robert Taylor, Auburn University Alfa Eminent Scholar and Professor says Canadian and Mexican cattle producers have not been hurt by the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) rule. Taylor says he collected data from the weekly mandatory price reporting from the last 10 years; USDA Foreign Ag Service trade data and some Canadian data.

Dr. Taylor says using the packers’ own data, he was able to determine that the price of fed cattle and feeder cattle has not been affected by COOL and it is unlikely that the rule had a negative impact on the importation of Canadian cattle.  Taylor talks about the study.

 

While Taylor says most of the data was collected “on Auburn University time”, the National Farmers Union did make a financial contribution to the effort.  National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson says they will pass the information on to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. Johnson adds that while some Canadians have been threatening retaliatory tariffs against a number of U.S. products, the WTO has yet to even rule on the latest appeal.  Johnson says he believes the WTO will rule in favor of the U.S. but even if they don’t, the Canadians would then have to prove damages and this study shows none exist.  “We have independent, publicly verifiable packer-reported data to demonstrate that COOL really did not impact Canadian markets at all.”  Johnson comments on the procedure.

The full study report is available here:

 

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published.


 

Stay Up to Date

Subscribe for our newsletter today and receive relevant news straight to your inbox!