Canada Threatens Retaliation With Billions Of Dollars Of Tariffs On US Exports If COOL Is Passed

(Dean Best)  Canada’s Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz, has warned the US an introduction of a voluntary scheme for country-of-origin labels on meat would be met with tariffs on imports.
After seeing plans for mandatory labels thrown out by the World Trade Organization for breaking trade rules, two US senators have tabled a bill for a voluntary programme. The US Senate is mulling the move, introduced last month by Democrat Senator for Michigan, Debbie Stabenow, and the Republican representative for North Dakota, John Hoeven.
However, the move was drawn criticism from the Canadian government, which, alongside Mexico, had turned to the WTO to block the US’s original move.
“Senators Hoeven and Stabenow’s proposal in no way reflects Canada’s voluntary labelling regime – any suggestion of this is blatantly false. ‎A voluntary regime as they propose does not require legislation. Should the United States move forward with their short-sighted proposal, Canada will have no choice but to impose billions of dollars of retaliatory tariffs on United States exports,” Ritz said.
Tabling the bill, Stabenow said the US would be able to satisfy its international trade arrangements and also “empower” consumers by providing them with access to meats labelled “product of the US”. These labels would be applied to beef, pork, chicken and ground meat products that are from animals born, raised and harvested in the US.
Ritz said US consumers would feel the impact if the measure does become law. “By continuing the segregation of and discrimination against Canadian cattle and hogs, Senators Hoeven and Stabenow’s proposed measure will continue to harm farmers, ranchers, packers, retailers and consumers. It will cost American families thousands of jobs, and guarantee Canadian retaliation,” he said.
“The only way for the United States to avoid retaliation is for the United States Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and Senator Roberts and put forward legislation that repeals COOL once and for all.”
In June, the US House of Representatives repealed the existing mandatory COOL regulations after Canada and Mexico threatened US$3bn in retaliatory sanctions.
The full repeal gained the support of US meat industry body the North American Meat Institute, which praised the “full and simple repeal”. Speaking at the time, president and CEO Barry Carpenter insisted regulators could not “waste precious time debating proposals other than full and simple repeal” given the threat of trade sanctions. “Anything else jeopardises important segments of the US economy and ultimately our consumers,” he insisted.