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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Canada wins, again, on U.S. meat-label rules

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 07/1/2012 4:15 AM | Comments: 0

DUNDURN, Sask. -- An international trade referee has sided with Canada in a long-running dispute over labelling beef and pork products produced in this country.

In a decision welcomed by industry officials and politicians, the World Trade Organization has decided U.S. rules that force country-of-origin labels on Canadian products violate trade agreements.

"It's been a long wait. It's been an expensive wait. But we're very pleased with the decision and hope that we'll be able to move along quickly from here," said Ray Price of the packing industry's Canadian Meat Council.

While he acknowledged Friday's ruling found flaws in the American rules, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk suggested his country is unwilling to completely abandon labelling rules.

"The Obama administration remains committed to ensuring that information on the origin of all food products covered by (country-of-origin labelling) is available to American families so they can make informed purchasing decisions," he said in a release.

Friday's decision was on an appeal of a WTO ruling made last November. At that time, the body found American country-of-origin label rules failed to live up to that nation's obligations under international trade law.

Those laws have been criticized on both sides of the border -- as well as in Mexico -- for disrupting an industry that has come to depend on easy movement of live animals and processed meat products. They have been blamed for raising prices in the U.S. and damaging Canadian producers.

Canadian statistics show shipments of Canadian cattle to U.S. feedlots declined 49 per cent by 2009, a year after the regulations took effect. Exports of slaughter hogs declined 58 per cent.

In its ruling, the appeal panel wrote the U.S. does have the right to require that consumers be provided information on the source of their food.

However, it decided the American regulations severely discriminate against Canadian and Mexican producers. It found only a small part of the data that non-U.S. producers were required to collect was passed on to consumers, while American producers did not have to keep such records.

"The (country-of-origin labelling) measure has a detrimental impact on imported livestock because its record-keeping and verification requirements create an incentive for processors to use exclusively domestic livestock, and a disincentive against using like imported livestock," says the ruling.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 1, 2012 B8

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