Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 5/26/11

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said today it supports a preliminary ruling by the World Trade Organization that U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) laws violate international trade regulations.

“This ruling is unfortunate for the U.S. government but the consequences of a poor decision have been revealed. We fully support WTO’s preliminary ruling,” NCBA President Bill Donald said in a news release.
Canada and Mexico initiated a WTO case six months after U.S. Congress, in 2008, passed mandatory COOL law. The WTO on May 20, 2011, preliminarily ruled that U.S. COOL requirements violate provisions of WTO’s agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

“Proponents of COOL have always believed that restricting imports of Mexican and/or Canadian feeder cattle will decrease the supply of feeder cattle in the United States and increase the price of U.S. origin feeder cattle. In reality, reducing the number of cattle in the marketplace also reduces the infrastructure of the U.S. beef industry,” Donald said.

WTO reportedly will make the ruling public sometime in September, at which point Washington will have two months to decide whether to appeal.
 

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