February 24, 2009

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants tighter regulations for origin labels for meat imports, stating that the nation's meatpackers should voluntarily impose a stricter regime of country-of-origin labelling (COOL) for meat than the Bush administration wrote in the rule it published before leaving office which is included in 2008 farm bill.

Vilsack said he will reopen the rulemaking process should meatpackers are unable to comply.

However, pundits say Vilsack had not sent meatpackers a letter detailing his demands, fuelling speculations that he might have run into opposition within the administration or with the government of Canada, where President Barack Obama visited February 19.

While Vilsack said the announcement was made in preparation for Obama's trip to Canada, Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said his government may revive its case to the World Trade Organization if the US stiffens its labelling program for meat, reports the Bloomberg. Canadians say that they are losing much for their cattle because American meatpackers do not like to segregate their production lines.

In an interview, Vilsack said he any decisions about trade implications of the labelling programme would be made by President Obama himself. He added that the President's trip to Canada would be futile and that the US would not be a "good friend" if he were to say nothing about the labelling issue and then impose a stricter regime at a later date.

Vilsack also said that while he was aware that the Bush administration had discussed with the Canadians about the COOL, he said "My job is simply to follow the law . . . not to make trade policy."

Vilsack, who is a lawyer, said it is his interpretation of the law is that Congress thinks "American consumers need to know and should know when something is an all-American product" and that the Bush rule did not carry out the law. Vilsack said he did not initiate a new round of rulemaking, as some farm groups and members of Congress had suggested, because he did not want "a vacuum that would be created by the process.'

However, he stressed that he may make his suggested voluntary regime mandatory at some point in the future.