TORONTO – Canada’s challenge of American country-of-origin labelling rules moved a step closer to resolution last week.However, a University of Saskatchewan academic warned a favourable ruling is not a sure thing.In Geneva, the World Trade Organization announced membership of a three-person panel that will hear arguments in the dispute that Canadian cattle exporters say is costing them at least $80 per head in lower prices.A WTO ruling is expected late this year.The COOL regulations enacted last year require that labels on beef, lamb, pork and seafood products indicate whether the ingredients are of foreign origin.Eleven American slaughter plants no longer accept Canadian cattle for processing because of added costs and concerns about consumer backlash.During a May 15 presentation to a meeting of the Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy and Competitiveness Research Network in Toronto, U of S professor Bill Kerr and student Alison Sawka argued that Canada’s success in the COOL challenge will depend on what WTO rules the panel measures COOL against.Canadian lawyers will argue that COOL violates Article IX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which allow country-of-origin labelling as a way to protect consumers from fraudulent product claims. It says any such rules should be written to keep “difficulties and inconveniences” in the marketplace to a minimum and not “materially” reduce the value of trade.“It is obvious to non-lawyers that COOL does not meet the criterion,” said Kerr, who called COOL “silly protectionism.”However, it depends how lawyers interpret those words.As well, it could be difficult to present credible statistical evidence of “material” damage to Canadian exporters so soon after imposition of the rules.Kerr suggested that a stronger Canadian argument could be under international Codex rules for food labelling and Technical Barriers to Trade provisions, which state that country-of-origin labelling must have a “legitimate objective” and must consider a product that is processed from imported raw material to be a product of the country where the processing took place.That would mean that meat products created in American plants from Canadian meat would be considered product of the United States.“If that is what the panel considers, then Canada should win,” Kerr said.However, he also cautioned that Canada cannot assume this would be the end of it.“Don’t underestimate protectionists,” he said. “Protectionists never go away. They are very much alive and effective.”
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