Posted March 3, 2014
A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel is expected to
issue a confidential interim report on June 20 in the Country of Origin
Labeling (COOL) dispute between the United States, Canada, and Mexico,
according to a Wall Street Journal article available here.
The panel recently heard oral arguments from the
respective governments. A post
from this blog on the hearing is available here.
The dispute began in 2008, when Canada and Mexico
“first challenged the measure as being discriminatory against their own
livestock industries.”
The U.S. lost an appeal brought by Canada and Mexico in
2012, when the WTO Appellate Body found that COOL regulations violated trade
agreements by giving less favorable treatment to Canadian cattle and hogs. The rule was, then, revised.
The COOL final rule, available here,
became effective on May 23, 2013 and modified certain provisions of the COOL
regulations after the World Trade Organization (WTO) found that aspects of the
regulations violated U.S. trade obligations.
The final rule requires labels on certain cuts of meat, to provide
information on where it was born, raised, and slaughtered.
Additional information on the WTO case is available here.
For more information on COOL, please visit the National
Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
