WTO Rejects Final USA Appeal on Country-of-Origin Labels for Beef and Pork

The World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body on May 18, 2015, rejected the final USA appeal in the long-running dispute over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for beef and pork.

The ruling

Canada and Mexico had challenged the amended COOL rules, which require labels on retail beef and pork cuts saying where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. The Appellate Body upheld a compliance panel’s finding that the rules treat imported Canadian cattle and hogs and Mexican cattle less favorably than USA livestock, in violation of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.

It agreed that the amended rules increased the record-keeping burden for imported livestock and could still produce inaccurate labels. The panel had found that between 57.7% and 66.7% of beef and between 83.5% and 84.1% of pork muscle cuts consumed in the USA carried no origin information for consumers, despite the burden the rules placed on producers and processors.

The Appellate Body reversed the panel’s finding that Canada and Mexico had not shown the rules were more trade-restrictive than necessary, but it could not finish that analysis.

Reaction

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it was disappointed and was “considering all options going forward.” A spokesperson for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said USDA stood ready to work with Congress “as Congress develops a way to change the statute to resolve this matter.”

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, called for repeal. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said retaliation by Canada and Mexico would be next, and the Canadian Pork Council called the ruling final. Friends of the Earth said it would deny consumers the right to know where their meat comes from.

Congress repealed the COOL requirements for beef and pork in December 2015 (our coverage).