January 21, 2013

US to comply with WTO ruling on origin labeling

The US has to comply with a WTO ruling against Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling by May 23.

The world trade body ruled that part of the COOL law is trade distorting.

Canadian Pork Council Executive Director, Martin Rice, says that compliance needs to be met because Canadian producers are losing a great deal of money because of the restriction caused by COOL.

Rice says the losses being felt by Canadian pork producers are wide ranging.

He says it's the US law that needs significant changes to overturn the trade restrictions and must be handled by the Congress in Washington.

Rice added that his group would like to see the US comply with the ruling rather than his country having to get the WTO to impose retaliatory measures.