The United States has officially repealed a part of its mandatory country-of-origin labelling law.
Congress agreed to repeal the law last December in an omnibus spending bill, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a final rule outlining the change on March 1.
The change was in response to the threat of more than $1 billion in trade retaliation by Canada and Mexico after the World Trade Organization ruled that the law discriminated against imported cattle and hogs.
The statute required meat to be labelled with the country of birth, where it was raised and slaughtered. It continues to cover lamb, chicken, goat, fish, shellfish, ginseng, fresh and frozen vegetables, fruit and some nuts.
The final rule removes the requirements for labelling on all beef and pork products.
It said removal of this requirement saves producers, processors and retailers as much as $1.8 billion in costs, but it also said it removes consumer information for those who wanted to know the country of origin of their food.
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