NPPC Calls for Congressional Action on M-COOL to Avoid Retaliatory Tariffs

By Bruce Cochrane

The U.S. based National Pork Producers Council is calling on Congress to bring Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling into compliance with its international trade obligations before the World Trade Organization grants Canada and Mexico the authority to impose retaliatory tariffs on products imported from the U.S.

Last month the World Trade Organization found changes made in May of last year, in response to Canadian and Mexican complaints that U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling discriminates against livestock produced in their countries, failed to bring the law into compliance with U.S. international trade obligations.

The U.S. has one final opportunity to appeal before Canada and Mexico will have the authority to apply to impose retaliatory tariffs on a wide range of imported U.S. products.

Dave Warner, the director of communications with the National Pork Producers Council, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed in two attempts to bring the law into compliance and suggests it's up to Congress to step in with a legislated fix.

Dave Warner-National Pork Producers Council:
Obviously we'd like this to happen as soon as possible and that's because at some point I assume that the Canadians and the Mexicans will ask the WTO for retaliatory tariffs so they will ask that they be allowed to put tariffs on U.S. products going into Canada and going into Mexico.

We know that Canada had a preliminary list that included beef and pork but it also included many non-agricultural products.
For NPPC and I think for much of U.S. agriculture and quite frankly U.S. businesses the bottom line is that we must avoid trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico.

That would hurt U.S. jobs and hurt the U.S. economy and we don't need that.

Warner notes while the original law offered U.S. packers some flexibility in the use of imported livestock, the revised law has been even more restrictive so it came as no surprise when it too was ruled non-compliant by the WTO.

Source: Farmscape