News

Report: WTO panel to rule against U.S. COOL

It appears that the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel considering the U.S. country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements is leaning heavily toward Canada and Mexico.   That’s according to a report on DTN’s Washington Insider, which cites a confidential interim report circulated to the parties in the dispute.

In particular, the panel agreed with the complainants that COOL requirements resulted in imported beef and pork from Canada and Mexico being treated less favorably than U.S.-origin meat, in violation of WTO rules.

While the ruling is only preliminary, trade experts say WTO panels rarely alter their interim conclusions in the final ruling.  The panel is expected to issue its final ruling to the parties by the middle of the year, with WTO making the ruling public sometime in September.  The U.S. will then have 60 days to decide whether to appeal the panel’s findings.

Trade experts expect the U.S. to appeal the ruling, once it becomes final, because COOL has relatively strong support from both the Congress and the administration.

Reaction to the report has been fairly predictable. 

R-CALF USA says it is “tremendously disappointed” in the decision, and urged Congress to reject the ruling from what R-CALF calls “an un-elected, foreign tribunal that is attempting to strike down our constitutionally passed law.”

Meanwhile, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says the preliminary ruling reinforces what the group has stated all along—“COOL was a bad idea from the beginning and the preliminary WTO ruling..is proof.”