Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz continued his push yesterday for repeal of country-of-origin labelling in the United States.
Ritz met with American agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack in Washington, D.C., and said he repeated Canada’s position that mandatory COOL contravenes the world trade agreement, has cost Canadian cattle and hog producers $1 billion per year and will jeopardize many American packing plant jobs.
The “education period” for mCOOL ends tomorrow, at which time U.S. companies will be expected to fully comply with its labelling regulations.
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As negotiations continue on the U.S. farm bill, Ritz said he is hopeful COOL will not be included in the new version.
“Our message remains the same. With the integration of the North American market, it’s in the best interests of both Americans and Canadians to fix COOL. It’s a broken record, but we’ll keep playing it until we get some positive action from the United States administration,” Ritz said in a conference call from the U.S. capital.
“The damages will significantly increase under the amended rule that takes effect this Saturday.”
Tyson Foods has already announced it will no longer accept Canadian cattle because of the extra expense that COOL will present. Ritz said that means roughly 3,000 head of livestock per week will have to be processed elsewhere.
A World Trade Organization compliance panel was struck in late September to determine whether an amended version of COOL is within international trading rules. The panel is not expected to make a determination until 2014.
Ritz said he is confident the WTO will once again rule in favour of Canada, and the country is ready to impose its list of retaliatory tariffs once the WTO process allows.
“If there’s no fix to COOL in the farm bill, then we stand ready to take retaliatory actions.”
At the U.S. federal level, Ritz said the states of Iowa, North Dakota, Washington and California are now against COOL, having changed their previous opinions on the legislation, and support for Canada’s position is building.
Opposition to COOL is also widespread within the U.S. meat-packing sector and among major cattle producer groups. The legislation, if fully implemented, is likely to force closure of some U.S. packing plants, creating job losses.
“If COOL is allowed to continue, the United States congress would be effectively legislating its own citizens out of work,” Ritz said.
