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U.S. beef and pork likely targets of COOL backlash
Story Date: 5/29/2013
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Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 5/29/13
Canada and Mexico are likely to target imports of U.S. beef and pork in retaliation for the new country-of-origin labeling law enacted by Washington, experts said at last week’s spring meeting of the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Both countries are on record as saying they will retaliate against U.S. products if the World Trade Organization deems the new COOL rule noncompliant. The WTO’s compliance review will take three to six months, said Thad Lively, USMEF senior vice president for trade access, at the meeting.
“Products at the top of that list will be beef and probably pork,” he said.
Chad Russell, USMEF regional director for Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic, noted that pork was on a retaliatory list that Mexico issued in a cross-border trucking dispute arising from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“And the (Mexican) pork producers are putting tremendous pressure on the new administration and lobbying the legislative branch,” Russell said.
Should the WTO deem the new COOL rule noncompliant, according to James Wiesemeyer of Informa Economics, there is a marker in the House farm bill that would allow designated House and Senate conferees to reconcile differences in their respective farm bills. Doing so would establish a mechanism for USDA to rewrite a rule more likely to comply with WTO stipulations.
“So at least the framework is there,” Wiesemeyer said.
The stakes are high for U.S. beef and pork producers. Canada and Mexico imported a combined $4 billion in U.S. red meat in 2012 — nearly 35 percent of the total U.S. worldwide export value, USMEF noted.
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