A World Trade Organization arbitrator has given the United States until May 23 to change its country-of-origin labelling rule or face potential retaliation.
The Canadian government quickly called on the U.S. to obey the ruling.
“We expect that the U.S. will bring itself into compliance with its WTO obligations by May 2013 as determined by the arbitrator for the benefit of producers on both sides of the border,” agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and trade minister Ed Fast said in a Dec. 4 reaction.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture praised the federal government for pursuing the COOL case at the WTO.
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“The CCA looks forward to continuing its work with its U.S. allies and counterparts to develop a solution that eliminates the discrimination of Canadian cattle in the U.S. market,” association president Martin Unrau said in a Dec. 4 statement.
However, CCA executive vice-president Dennis Laycraft said in Calgary that some American agricultural groups are lobbying Congress to simply change regulations rather than change the basic rules to designate any animal processed in a federal U.S. plant a product of the U.S.
A flawed regulatory fix would lead to consequences, he said at an Alberta Beef Producers’ meeting.
“If it goes the other route, we will take them to a compliance panel and we will try and demonstrate quite clearly that they are not addressing the complaint properly and that is the path that ends up in retaliation and duties,” Laycraft said.
The WTO ruling by arbitrator Giorgio Sacerdoti on the proper timing for compliance with the 2012 dispute panel ruling against COOL followed a recommendation from Canada and Mexico that compliance should happen within a year rather than the 15 months requested by the U.S.
