COOL decision down to the fine points

Canada has made its final pitch to a World Trade Organization panel on the billions of dollars of damage beef and pork producers say they have suffered due to the U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) program.

Now it awaits a decision on what level of retaliatory tariffs it can impose on imports of American food and consumer goods...A final decision could come by Nov. 27.

Almost six years have passed since Canada first protested COOL to the WTO as a violation of international trade rules that burdened its producers with $3 billion a year in lower prices and extra costs, said Bergmann [chair of the Canadian Pork Council.].

“The WTO has ruled four times that COOL is discriminatory. The United States needs to deal now with fixing the faulty legislation before allowing steep tariffs to be imposed on a wide swath of its exports to Canada.”..

The office of the United States Trade Representative has claimed that COOL has only cost Canadian producers about US$43.2 million a year.

It says Canada made fundamental legal errors and numerous flaws and erroneous assumptions in developing its damage claims...

The Canadian duty list will include beef, pork, apples, rice, corn, maple syrup, wine, jewelry, wooden furniture and mattresses. Ritz says Canada will aim its tariffs to goods coming from states whose Senators opposed ending COOL.

This has been excerted from the 24 September 2015 edition of Manitoba Cooperator.