Thursday, August 10, 2017

U.S. COOL final rule proclaimed

Canada’s lamb, goat and chicken industries are facing tougher enforcement for their products exported to the United States.

While beef and pork have won world trade victories that forbid Country of Origin Labeling in the United States, lamb, goat and chicken were not included.

And this week the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it will be enforcing mandatory COOL for those species and products.

There is provision for fines of up to $10,000 for failure to comply.

Canada and Mexico argued that COOL for beef and pork depressed prices for their hog and cattle farmers.

The World Trade Organization agreed and forced the U.S. to repeal its COOL regulations for beef and pork, but not  until billions of dollars in losses had been suffered by Canadian and Mexican farmers.