Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 5/18/15


House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas) plans to submit a bill seeking to repeal meat- and poultry-related elements in U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law, which requires U.S., Canadian and Mexican livestock to be segregated from birth and identified on meat labeling. Conaway’s office confirmed to Meatingplace that the bill would be filed by the end of the day today.

“Once again, the WTO has found COOL to be non-compliant — a decision we fully expected,” Conaway said in a statement emailed to Meatingplace. “I have asked my colleagues on the Agriculture Committee to weigh in on resolving this issue once and for all during a business meeting this Wednesday in a targeted effort to remove ongoing uncertainty and to provide stability.”

Lawmakers spent the day preparing to lead the charge to repeal COOL in light of expected billions of dollars' worth of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. food, agricultural, and manufactured goods by both Canada and Mexico.

A World Trade Organization panel Monday morning announced that it had rejected Washington’s appeal to an October 2014 ruling declaring COOL in violation of international trade law.

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