Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 3/22/17

While the Trump administration prepares to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is warning against any reconsideration of country-of-origin labeling (COOL).

COOL is reportedly among the administration’s “key elements of a model trade agreement” that it aims to address in renegotiating NAFTA and other trade deals. But in a committee hearing last week Roberts told Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative ambassador, to scrap that idea. 

The U.S. repealed COOL in December 2015 after Canada and Mexico convinced the World Trade Organization that the rule was discriminatory and violated international trade laws.

“We’ve been down this road before,” Roberts said. “We fixed the issue of COOL in 2015. We don’t need to go down that road again. We narrowly escaped about $4 billion … in retaliatory tariffs against the United States. I do not think we need a constantly changing list of key elements of a model trade agreement … what we need is a U.S. Trade Representative confirmed … and in place who will embark on a robust trade policy.”

The White House is expected to soon release two new executive orders, one that would require the review of all existing trade deals and one to review and change procurement policies.

The White House said shortly after Trump’s inauguration that the review of trade deals was the administration’s top trade priority, and at the top of that list is NAFTA.

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