WTO Agrees with Canada, Mexico in COOL Complaint

On Nov. 18, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico in a complaint against the U. S. mandatory country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) law, which took effect in 2008. Following the law's implementation, U.S. imports of Canadian cattle and hogs and Mexican cattle dramatically declined, according to the American Meat Institute (AMI).

Canada and Mexico had argued the COOL law is inconsistent with the U.S. obligations under several articles of the WTO agreement. The WTO panel noted in its findings the U.S. law violated WTO rules on several fronts and wrote specifically, "The COOL measure, particularly in regard to the muscle-cut meat labels, violates Article 2.1 because it affords imported livestock treatment less favorable than that accorded to like domestic livestock."

Reprinted from meatpoultry.com