News

No need to panic with COOL

The National Farmers Union is a staunch supporter of Country of Origin Labeling but they were not surprised when the World Trade Organization ruled against the U.S. law on Monday.  NFU senior vice president of programs Chandler Ghoule says 96 percent of the countries sued through the WTO end-up losing the appeal.  Such was the case in this instance where Canada and Mexico filed suit against the U.S. rule claiming it is doing economic harm to livestock producers in their country.

House Agriculture Committee chair Mike Conaway of Texas has promised to introduce legislation later this week to repeal COOL, Ghoule says that is an unnecessary knee-jerk reaction.  While Canada has threatened to establish retaliatory tariffs against a list of U.S. products if COOL is not dropped, Ghoule says there are a number of steps remaining in the process before that would come to fruition.  He says the United States has never changed a law before the entire WTO process has been completed.  House Ag Committee ranking member Colin Peterson and Senate Ag Committee chair Pat Roberts have both stated they want to consider all the options before moving forward.

The next step would require Canada to prove that there has been economic damage to their livestock producers, something Ghoule notes they have not done to this point.  In fact, Auburn University released a study last January which found Canadian producers had not been hurt by the U.S. law and even enjoyed a price increase in a couple of months.  If Canada cannot prove economic harm, no retaliatory tariffs would be permitted.  Even if they can prove some damage, Ghoule believes some type of agreement can be worked-out through corrective legislation.  He stresses this is a very popular rule with the American consumer who wants to know where their food comes from.

Ghoule talks about the process.