Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 10/20/15

Canada and Mexico will have to wait a little longer for the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) final report on U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) retaliation.

The WTO panel was expected to issue the report on Nov. 27, but the date has been pushed back to allow more time to translate the report into multiple languages, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) said in its latest newsletter.

WTO’s decision on how much Canada and Mexico can impose in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods will be final and not subject to appeal, allowing both countries to implement the tariffs.

Canada seeks to impose tariffs on more than C$3.1 billion per year of U.S. exports. Mexico wants more than US$713 million in retaliatory tariffs. The U.S. has estimated the costs related to COOL arbitration at US$91 million.

CCA called the U.S. figure “an amount that disregards any valuation related to segregation of cattle, transportation issues or price suppression in the Canadian market. As the WTO has already found these issues to be at the core of the COOL violation, the CCA is confident that Canada’s calculations will be strongly considered by the arbitrators.”

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