OTTAWA — Canada is maintaining its right to retaliate against the United States if it introduces any new form of country-of-origin labelling.
“We need to have the tools to retaliate if we need it. We can keep that authorization indefinitely,” said John Masswohl of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
The United States published a final rule to remove pork and beef from the mandatory regulation, but some states have hinted at reviving the requirement in some form.
“It will continue to come up,” Tracy Brunner, president of the U.S. based National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told the CCA’s annual meeting, which was held in Ottawa March 10-11.
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“There is always a minority who feel restrictions of trade can be in the best interest of business.”
Tyson Meats has said its plant in Pasco, Washington, will accept Canadian cattle now that COOL has been officially repealed, but the company’s other three facilities process only American cattle.
Those plants ship beef to South Korea, and that country has said it will accept only U.S. beef or beef from cattle that have lived in the U.S. for 100 days or from countries eligible to export to South Korea.
