Canadian pork producers want COOL for US imports

The US country-of-origin labelling (COOL) rules have affected Canada's meat and livestock sectors, causing a growing number of Canadian pork producers to call for the government to implement the very same rules on US pork imports.

Manitoba Pork Council chairman Karl Kynoch said Canadian pork producers are concerned that while the COOL regulations have undermined sales of Canadian products to the US, American products continue to flow freely into Canada.

Canada is currently going through the WTO to try to resolve the COOL issue, but if the country loses the case and the labelling restrictions stay, some producers will push for the same labelling laws for the domestic market, said Kynoch.

About 25% of supermarket meat products in Canada come from the US, which has managed to continually increase product sales into Canada. As a result, Canadian producers are getting disconcerted and feel that the situation is unfair and imbalanced, according to Kynoch.

He suggests the American and Canadian industries need to work together to compete on a world market.