Gerry Ritz is Canada's Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food. Today's quote was a comment he made in an interview following Monday's WTO decision on America's country of origin labeling requirements for beef, pork, and chicken, known as COOL. Mr. Ritz's assessment that COOL should be repealed came with the clear threat of retaliation if it is not. "When we start to attach tariffs to $400-million of California wine," he said, "it gets their attention."
The View from Canada and Mexico. The same thought was conveyed more formally in a statement on COOL issued jointly by Mexican and Canadian officials, immediately following the announcement from the WTO's Appellate Body. The officials said:
"Once again, the WTO has confirmed Canada and Mexico's long-standing position that the United States' mandatory COOL requirements for beef and pork are blatantly protectionist and are a violation of the United States' international trade obligations.
"The amended COOL measure, which causes Canadian and Mexican livestock and meat to be segregated from those of U.S. origin, is damaging to North America's supply chain and is harmful to producers and processors in all three countries.
"In light of the WTO's final decision, and due to the fact that this discriminatory measure remains in place, our governments will be seeking authorization from the WTO to take retaliatory measures against U.S. exports.
"We call on the United States to repeal COOL legislation and comply with its international obligations.
"The Canadian and Mexican governments will continue to work closely to resolve this important trade issue with the United States in order to protect our farmers and ranchers and maintain jobs and economic prosperity throughout North America."
That statement was issued by the following four ministers:
Ed Fast, Canada's Minister for International Trade,
Gerry Ritz, Canada's Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food,
Ildefonso Guajardo Villereal, Mexico's Secretary of Economy, and
Enrique Martinez y Martinez, Mexico's Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.
House Ag. Approves RepealThe call by Mexico and Canada for a repeal of COOL has not gone unnoticed in the U.S. Congress, at least not in the House Agriculture Committee. Yesterday, May 20, the Committee approved legislation to roll back the problematic elements of COOL by a wide, bipartisan margin - 38 to 6.
The bill at issue, H.R. 2393, was introduced by the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep.
K. Michael Conaway (R-Tx) on Monday. In setting the bill before the House Agriculture Committee yesterday, Chairman Conaway said:
"This bill is narrowly drafted to eliminate the requirement for country of origin labeling for meat products from cattle and hogs for which the WTO ruled against the program. We also eliminate the requirement for chicken, which faced high costs and little if any quantifiable benefits."
As for the impetus and urgency of the bill, Chairman Conaway explained:
"We know we face retaliatory sanctions that could have effects in the billions of dollars. Regardless of the amount, we cannot sit back and let American businesses be held hostage to the desire of a small minority who refuse to acknowledge that the battle is lost."
In between those two explanatory comments of his own, Chairman Conaway included some noteworthy elements of the report issued by the WTO's Appellate Body, including this one:
"[T]he panel had noted that between 57.7% and 66.7% of beef and between 83.5% and 84.1% of pork muscle cuts consumed in the US convey no consumer information on origin despite imposing an upstream recordkeeping burden on producers and processors that has a detrimental impact on competitive opportunities for imported livestock."