Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), and 10 Republican senators, filed an amendment to a highway funding bill late yesterday that would repeal mandatory labeling for beef, pork and poultry. It is identical to country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) legislation (H.R. 2393) that passed the House in early June by a vote of 300-131.
Earlier Thursday, committee ranking member Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) introduced a measure that also is now being considered as an amendment to the highway bill and would instead offer meat processors a voluntary approach to labeling. The bill would put the onus of deciding to label on packers, as opposed to retailers.
Both measures include chicken in their repeal.
“NCC and our members are pleased that the Senate bill introduced by Senators Stabenow and Hoeven includes a repeal of WTO-illegal COOL labeling applied to chicken,” said NCC President Mike Brown. “We understand that Canada has expressed strong concerns about some of the other provisions in the legislation, but this bill is a good first step.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Senate and House to fully bring the United States into compliance with its WTO obligations and avert the risk of retaliatory tariffs being imposed on U.S. chicken exports. The amendment offered today by Chairman Roberts, would achieve that goal,” Brown concluded.
The World Trade Organization issued a final ruling on May 18 against COOL, saying it is a barrier to trade.
In a statement shortly after the introduction of the first measure, Canada’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast said that “Senator Stabenow’s COOL 2.0 fails to address Canada’s concerns and would continue to undermine our integrated North American supply chains. The only acceptable outcome remains for the United States to repeal COOL or face $3B in annual retaliation.”
