Nutrition and Committee on Agriculture

Country of Origin Labeling and Trade Retaliation Nutrition and Committee on Agriculture

Country of origin labeling (COOL) is a landmark law. It empowers consumers to know where their food comes from. It is supported by America's family farmers and ranchers who proudly raise the world's safest, most abundant, most affordable food, and we are proud of them for doing that. While COOL has always enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the United State Senate, it's passage has created trade compliance issue with member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Almost immediately upon implementation of the mandatory regulations, Canada and Mexico filed suit with the WTO. In 2011, the WTO ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico, finding that the U. S. requirements were in violation of the WTO commitments by treating the Canadian and Mexican livestock less favorably than U. S. livestock. Later that year, the U. S. appealed the ruling, but in 2012, the WTO affirmed that the United States was in violation. In 2014, the WTO came back with another decision affirming for the third time the claims of discrimination brought by Canada and Mexico. The Congress, the impacted industries, and the regulators at the Department of Agriculture have put in endless efforts over the past three decades to make mandatory COOL viable. However, that objective has not been reached and has cost the U. S. billions of dollars.