WTO Rules Against U.S. Meat Labelling Laws

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Oct 21, 2014

Pork and beef industries hurt by laws that demand country of origin label for each animal

Canada has won an important battle in an ongoing trade dispute with the United States over meat labelling laws that have hurt the beef and pork industries.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) rules discriminate against exports from Canada and Mexico.

The rules, which went into effect in 2008 and were updated last year, are blamed by the Canadian beef industry for reducing meat exports to the U.S. by half.

The WTO compliance panel says COOL breaks trade rules because it treats Canadian and Mexican livestock less favourably than U.S. livestock.

The panel says changes the U.S. made to the rules last year made the policy even more detrimental to livestock exporters.

"The compliance panel concluded that the amended COOL measure increases the original COOL measure's detrimental impact on the competitive opportunities of imported livestock in the U.S. market," the panel said.

"It necessitates increased segregation of meat and livestock in the U.S. market, entails a higher record-keeping burden and increases the original COOL measure's incentive to choose domestic over imported livestock."

2nd ruling against COOL laws

This is the third time the WTO has ruled against country-of-origin labelling — it last said the practice contravened trade laws in 2012.

The federal government hailed the ruling Monday and called on the United States to comply with the WTO decision.

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