Thursday, June 11, 2015

House votes to eliminate COOL

The United States House of Representatives has voted 300 to 131 to scrap the Country-of-Origin Labeling law, but Canada’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz cautions that it’s not yet a done deal.

It still needs voting approval in the Senate and then goes to President Barrack Obama who holds the right to veto the legislation.

That’s not likely to happen because Canada and Mexico have applied to the World Trade Organization to impose higher tariffs on about $3 billion worth of U.S. products if the U.S. refuses to scrap the COOL regulations.

They make it more costly for the U.S. meat-packing industry to process livestock that was born in Mexico or Canada and that lowers the price for Mexican and Canadian farmers.


Canada’s hog and cattle farmers have hired economists who calculate their losses at about $1.5 billion a year because of COOL.