US meat industry speaks out against COOL
The American Meat Institute has slammed the mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law, saying it violates international trade obligations.
Canada and Mexico in late 2009 filed a case against the US with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as the two countries' livestock sectors were affected by the ruling.
AMI senior vice president of regulatory affairs and general counsel, Mark Dopp, said equitable enforcement of international trade rules is a high priority and that the US has often challenged other countries based on those rules when market access for American meat products was threatened or cut off with little or no legitimate justification.
However, COOL is a clear violation of those very international trade rules that the US uses to protect itself from unfair treatment, which undermines the credibility of the US, said Dopp.
COOL is inconsistent with trade agreements and with US obligations under both WTO and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and NAFTA, due to its discriminatory effect on imported meat and livestock, Dopp concluded.