WTO Authorizes Retaliation Against U.S.

An arbitration panel at the World Trade Organization released a final decision last week in the ongoing dispute over Country of Origin Labeling, authorizing Canada and Mexico to impose $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs on the United States.

In the days since the decision, U.S. groups have intensified their calls to Congress to repeal COOL, which is tied up in a series of end-of-year decisions in Washington this week.

The COOL rule, which appeared in the 2002 Farm Bill, requires meat be labeled with information about where the livestock was born, raised, and slaughtered.

Its intent is to offer transparency to engaged consumers seeking to know more about their food. Its consequence, critics argue, was a discriminatory system that placed a costly burden on producers in Canada and Mexico.

Since 2011, the WTO has sided with Mexico and Canada in successive decisions. The decision last week is final and authorizes Canada to impose annual sanctions up to $780.3 million in U.S. dollars. Mexico may levy up to $227.8 million a year in retaliatory tariffs.

The COOL rule "disrupts the highly integrated North American meat industry supply chain," the Canadian government said in a statement after the WTO ruling. "Since 2011, the World Trade Organization has repeatedly ruled that COOL discriminates against Canadian and Mexican cattle and hogs and violates the trade obligations of the United States."

Governments from both countries have said they are prepared to begin retaliatory tariffs soon, although they've suggested a repeal of the law could put the matter to rest.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to all members of Congress urging "a complete repeal" of the COOL rule.

"The stakes are high: Canada and Mexico are by far the largest export markets of the United States. Trade with our two North American neighbors reaches $1.3 trillion annually and supports nearly 14 million U.S. jobs," the Chamber wrote.

In general terms the COOL program is supported by consumer groups and many cow-calf ranchers and opposed by meatpackers and food companies. A bipartisan bill to make the labeling program voluntary has been introduced by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, (D-MI). S