Canadian Pork and Beef Commodities Tout Victory over WTO Ruling

World Trade Organization Cool Ruling Leaves the U.S Scrambling

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

The World Trade Organization ruling is welcomed by beef and pork commodity groups in Canada. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Canadian Pork Council predict that the Cool ruling should speed up export relations between Canada and the United States.  Prior to the WTO ruling, trade negotiations between the two countries were becoming sticky, with Canadian commodity groups noting that the US has been discriminating against Canadian livestock. The Cool ruling has confirmed the long held belief that discrimination has been a factor with trade exports.

The President of the Canadian Pork Council Jean Guy Vincent expects that the ruling will require the US to make changes to legislation in order to comply with the ruling. The Canadian Pork Council has said that since the implementation of COOL in 2008 it’s costing the pork industry 1 point billion dollars annually.

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association is also claiming victory with the Cool ruling. The CCA President Martin Unrau echoes similar hopes that the US will amend the COOL legislation to remove discrimination for both pork and beef to the US. The CCA argues that the legislation is costing cattle producers between 25-40 dollars a head amounting to 150 million dollars a year. 

Both commodity groups say that the long and expensive trade dispute was well worth the results of the WTO ruling.