US Industry Prioritizes Quick Reform of COOL Regs if WTO Moves to Endorse Retaliation
Some members of U.S. industry across the manufacturing and agricultural spectrum support a change in the country-of-origin labeling regime for foreign meat products and livestock that would to bring the law into compliance with global trade rules, rather than a flat repeal of the regulations, said industry representatives in recent interviews. A Wall Street Journal report published on Aug. 21 claimed the World Trade Organization is poised to allow Canada and Mexico to move closer to retaliation in response to the COOL regulations, but the WTO panel report will not be made public until the end of September at the earliest (see 14082621).
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U.S. industry officials, however, fear retaliation could threaten many U.S. industry sectors. “Obviously a huge amount of manufactured goods are traded between the U.S., Mexico and Canada,” said National Association of Manufacturers Vice President of International Economic Affairs Linda Dempsey. “That puts manufactured goods at significant risk of retaliation.” The Canadian government published in June 2013 a list of goods it is considering for retaliation, which includes jewelry, swivel seats and wooden furniture, among other manufactured goods. Mexico has not yet published a list that outlines specific tariff lines it would target through retaliation. The Canadian list, however, largely comprises agriculture tariff lines.
The U.S. meat import and production industry is also open to a wide variety of mechanisms the U.S. can put into effect to bring the COOL regulations into WTO compliance, said Jeremy Russell, director of government relations at the North American Meat Association. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” said Russell. “A voluntary standard would work. There may be a mandatory structure that the U.S. can negotiate with Canada and Mexico, but we don’t have a pre-planned prescription.”
The WTO compliance panel report, due for public release in late September at the earliest, will likely spell out specific areas where the COOL regulations are in violation, and U.S. legislative or statutory responses will have to consider those determinations. The WTO shot down the regulations in 2012 and USDA later put into effect an amended regime that it claimed put the U.S. into compliance. The Obama administration and Congress should act quickly following the report’s release to remove the portions of the regulations that are deemed in violation, said Dempsey. "From our perspective, it's important to implement these rulings as quickly as possible,” she added. “We certainly don't want to see China delay its implementation of the rare earth ruling. And by the same token, we want to see the U.S. set a good standard and implement any final ruling it needs to implement quickly as well.” -- Brian Dabbs