Labelling law challenge Products on Canada’s list that would be slapped with retaliatory tariffs include fruit, pasta, chocolate and wine
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has urged Mexico to issue a list of retaliatory measures it would take to protest U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labelling laws.
Speaking from Mexico, where the agriculture leaders of the three countries met in part to note the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Ritz said COOL is costing the continental meat industry billions in jobs and lost opportunities.
“Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief economist recently testified to their agricultural committee that COOL is hurting livestock trade and has no quantifiable benefits for American consumers,” Ritz said.
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In bilateral talks, he and Mexican secretary Enrique Martinez discussed their common resolve to work together to fix COOL.
“Canada’s proposed retaliation list has certainly got the attention of the Americans,” Ritz said. “I urged our Mexican friends to keep up the pressure by issuing a comprehensive list of their own for retaliation.”
Mexico has a “legislative quirk” that doesn’t allow it to go public with a list until the WTO ruling is released, he said.
However, Ritz said it would help if Mexico publicly stated it has a comprehensive list as the case nears a decision, which is expected in late June, and also returns to the American courts.
He said Mexico won a 2008 cross-border trucking dispute with the United States, which indicates it is serious about trade issues.
Ritz also said that in his discussions with U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, he “did get the feeling that they are coming to grips with the fact that this one is slipping away from them.”
There is pressure on the government from states where products would be subject to retaliatory tariffs, such as California wine and Kentucky bourbon.
“We’ve also seen two major (beef) plants close in the U.S. Two more are on shaky ground,” Ritz said.
That’s bad news for Canada’s cattle industry, which relies on American capacity for 70 percent of its processing. Meanwhile, also up for discussion were low level presence of genetically modified contents in grain exports, the recent porcine epidemic diarrhea outbreak and the benefits that the three countries have seen from NAFTA.
Agricultural trade has quadrupled to more than $1 billion per week since the agreement was signed, Ritz said.
