Manitoba’s minister of agriculture says there’s widespread agreement that the issue of U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling issue needs to be resolved.
The governments of Canada and Mexico and stakeholders within the cattle and hog industries continue to wait for an official World Trade Organization ruling on whether changes made to U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling in May 2013 brought the United States into compliance with its international treaty obligations.
Last week the issue was raised during the 23rd Tri-National Agricultural Accord in Chicago.
Manitoba agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn says there was agreement that the issue needs to be addressed.
As we sat around the table with delegates from the U.S., from Mexico and from Canada we all stood united in a joint statement that COOL needs to be addressed and simplified based on the latest ruling that was brought forward.
So there will be potentially trade retaliations, taking a hard stance about where COOL sits today.
I was very pleased with the discussion that took place with all representatives that sat around in the room and we’re talking numbers of approximately 60 different individuals so the importance of COOL definitely has resonated with a number of people from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
So I patiently await the announcement from the WTO ruling with minister Ritz I’m sure will be sharing that with all of us but the other reality is probably there shall be or will be an appeal process that I think minister Ritz will probably kind of elaborate on as we move forward.
Kostyshyn says Mandatory COOL continues to harm Canadian pork and beef producers and U.S. processors who need Canadian animals to keep their plants running at capacity.
