In this file:
· Vilsack on the COOL Requirements for Beef and Pork
“Effective immediately, USDA is not enforcing the COOL requirements for muscle cut and ground beef and pork outlined in the January 2009 and May 2013 final rules.”
· USDA halts COOL enforcement after repeal
… enforcement of the rules would end “effectively immediately” but that “all imported and domestic meat will continue to be subject to rigorous inspections by USDA to ensure food safety.” His department must undertake a new rule making to remove beef and pork from the labeling requirements… The COOL rules were left intact for poultry, a small win for defenders of the law, which was enacted as part of the 2002 farm bill…
· Canada: COOL is DONE: U.S. repeals country of origin labelling for cattle and hogs.
The U.S. Congress repealed country-of-origin labelling legislation Dec. 18 as part of a larger omnibus bill, averting a potential trade war in the form of more than $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs about to be imposed by Canada and Mexico…
· Mexico: US Congress repeals meat labeling rules
Bows to WTO ruling and avoids $1 billion in tariffs by Mexico and Canada
· Livestock groups split over COOL repeal
The long-disputed country of origin labeling law for beef and pork is headed for the dumpster to the delight of some and the ire of others in the U.S. livestock industry.
· NPPC: Congress Repeals ‘COOL’ Meat Labeling Provision
· NFU Praises Parts of the Omnibus-Tax Extenders Package, Voices Concern Over Others
Vilsack on the COOL Requirements for Beef and Pork
Southeast AgNet
December 18th, 2015
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today released the following statement regarding the language in the omnibus bill repealing the country of origin labeling requirements for beef and pork products.
“The omnibus bill repealed the country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements for muscle cuts of beef and pork, and ground beef and pork. Effective immediately, USDA is not enforcing the COOL requirements for muscle cut and ground beef and pork outlined in the January 2009 and May 2013 final rules.”
USDA will be amending the COOL regulations as expeditiously as possible to reflect the repeal of the beef and pork provisions. In addition, all imported and domestic meat will continue to be subject to rigorous inspections by USDA to ensure food safety.
source url
http://southeastagnet.com/2015/12/18/vilsack-on-the-cool-requirements-for-beef-and-pork/
USDA halts COOL enforcement after repeal
By Philip Brasher, Agri-Pulse
Dec 18, 2015
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2015 - The Agriculture Department immediately stopped enforcing the country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef and pork after approval of legislation repealing the rules.
“USDA will be amending the COOL regulations as expeditiously as possible to reflect the repeal of the beef and pork provisions,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
The department must conduct a new rule making to remove the beef and pork labeling requirements from USDA regulations.
He said that enforcement of the rules would end “effectively immediately” but that “all imported and domestic meat will continue to be subject to rigorous inspections by USDA to ensure food safety.” His department must undertake a new rule making to remove beef and pork from the labeling requirements.
The repeal of the country-of-origin labeling law was designed to avert more than $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs that the World Trade Organization authorized Canada and Mexico to levy against a variety of U.S. products because of COOL requirements.
Canadian officials said they would be closely monitoring USDA's implementation of the legislation but that the repeal measure "fully answers" its WTO complaint and effectively killed the possibility of tariffs. “What we were seeking was repeal and repeal has happened," said International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland.
She said, however, that Canada would proceed with getting formal authorization of the tariffs on Monday, a move which could affect development of a voluntary COOL program to replace the mandatory requirements. Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said the repeal "will remove a major trade barrier with the United States."
The COOL rules were left intact for poultry, a small win for defenders of the law, which was enacted as part of the 2002 farm bill. The repeal provision was contained in spending and tax legislation that Congress cleared and President Obama signed into law on Friday...
more
http://www.agri-pulse.com/USDA-halts-COOL-enforcement-after-repeal-approved-12182015.asp
COOL is DONE: U.S. repeals country of origin labelling for cattle and hogs.
by Barb Glen, The Western Producer (Canada)
Dec. 18th, 2015
Canadian cattle and hog producers are getting their Christmas gifts early this year.
The U.S. Congress repealed country-of-origin labelling legislation Dec. 18 as part of a larger omnibus bill, averting a potential trade war in the form of more than $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs about to be imposed by Canada and Mexico.
At press time, the bill had yet to receive presidential assent but cattle and pork association leaders were ready to celebrate once the ink was dry on Barack Obama’s signature.
“After all these years, it’s wonderful news,” said Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Dave Solverson about repeal of labelling legislation that the CCA and others have fought since 2008.
Solverson noted the support of the federal government, past and present, in pressing the issue through the World Trade Organization. The WTO ruled in Canada’s favour four times, supporting the contention that COOL violated international trade rules.
That point was key for Canadian Meat Council executive director Ron Davidson.
“Countries should abide by their international trade obligations, and given the consistent WTO decisions on this, I think the international trade obligations were very clear,” he said.
“If the U.S. is going to repeal those measures, I think it will make everybody happy because they will then be following the rules, hopefully.”
Canadian Pork Council chair Rick Bergmann said COOL’s repeal means the end of discriminatory pricing.
The legislation required U.S. processors to label meat according to the source animals’ place of birth and death. The need to segregate Canadian cattle and pigs and then label them incurred extra costs that discouraged their sale in the United States.
Bergmann, who raises isowean pigs, said Dec. 18 that he had already noticed better price offers in the U.S.
“That tells me that American producers have been talking with their processing plants that are in need of animals,” he said.
“There’s probably some speculators out there in the U.S. that say, ‘yes, common sense is going to prevail at the end of the day so let’s get these animals in now.’ ”
Solverson said he is hopeful the value chain will soon return to pre-COOL conditions.
Objections to COOL among U.S. cattle and hog producers and processors will be key to that, and they were also key to the repeal, he added.
“When I was lobbying in the U.S. last week, I said this is a very unusual trade dispute because industry on both sides of the border was on the same side on this issue,” he said.
“Outside of a couple of small protectionist groups, the whole U.S. cattle industry and beef processing and the unions that work in the plant, everybody wanted COOL gone .… It wasn’t just Canada and Mexico against the U.S. It was the industry against the administration, is what it was.”
Davidson said he was relieved retaliatory action will not be necessary.
“The intent was not ever a desire to retaliate. The intent was to have the rule rescinded.”
The WTO ruled that trade damage to the Canadian red meat industry because of COOL amounted to $1 billion annually, and both international trade minister Chrystia Freeland and agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay reiterated intentions Dec. 16 to impose retaliatory tariffs if it was not repealed.
However, Solverson said the cost of COOL has been far greater than dollar figures indicate...
more
US Congress repeals meat labeling rules
Bows to WTO ruling and avoids $1 billion in tariffs by Mexico and Canada
Source: CNNExpansión (sp), AFP (en)
via Mexico News Daily - December 18, 2015
Facing the prospect of a billion dollars a year worth of retaliatory tariffs by Mexico and Canada, the United States Congress today voted to repeal meat labeling rules that violated trade agreements.
Parts of the country of origin meat labeling (COOL) law that the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled were discriminatory were repealed through their inclusion earlier this week in an “omnibus” spending bill.
Mexico and Canada have been fighting the COOL legislation for several years, winning the support of the WTO, which on December 7 authorized the two countries to impose up to US $1 billion a year in tariffs.
Mexico was set to slap tariffs on apples, dairy products, alcoholic beverages and health products within hours of getting authorization to do so.
But the bill, which will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature, avoids such tariffs and more, and that will make the U.S. meat industry and manufacturers happy...
more
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/us-congress-repeals-meat-labeling-rules/
Livestock groups split over COOL repeal
The long-disputed country of origin labeling law for beef and pork is headed for the dumpster to the delight of some and the ire of others in the U.S. livestock industry.
Carol Ryan Dumas, Capital Press
December 18, 2015
Congressional repeal of mandatory country of origin labeling in the $1.15 trillion federal spending bill passed Dec. 18 is an early Christmas gift for some and a lump of coal for others in the U.S. livestock industry.
Repeal of the law as it applies to U.S. labels for beef and pork has been a growing topic in livestock circles for several years, coming to a head this month when the World Trade Organization sanctioned $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports by Canada and Mexico.
The long-running dispute between the U.S. and its two largest trading partners resulted in four WTO rulings against the U.S. — found to be in violation of trade obligations by COOL’s discrimination against cattle and hogs imported from Canada and cattle from Mexico.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association calls the COOL repeal a “significant victory for America’s cattle producers.”
“COOL has plagued our industry for many years now, costing us millions and driving us to the brink of retaliation from two of our largest trading partners,” NCBA President Philip Ellis said in a press release following passage of the spending bill.
“Cattle producers have had to bear the cost of this failed program for far too long, he said.
Pork producers also welcome the repeal.
America’s pork producers are grateful that lawmakers recognized the economic harm producers faced from retaliation, National Pork Producers Council President Ron Prestage said in a press release.
“I know tariffs on U.S. pork would have been devastating to me and other pork producers,” he said.
Pork producers are currently losing money on each hog marketed, and those losses would have been exacerbated significantly under retaliation from Canada and Mexico, NPPC contends.
North American Meat Institute President and CEO Barry Carpenter said in a statement a repeal of the “costly trade barrier” was urgently needed.
“The marketplace, with consumers as drivers, should determine what labeling is meaningful and should appear on meat products – not protectionists who fear free and unfettered trade,” he said.
Other groups representing livestock producers are outraged by the repeal and its last-minute inclusion as a rider in the spending bill.
National Farmers Union, which contends changing the mandatory program to voluntary status would solve the WTO dispute, is “deeply frustrated and angered” over the repeal, NFU President Roger Johnson stated in a press release.
The language of the repeal not only applies to the disputed muscle cuts of beef and pork but extends the repeal to trade-compliant ground beef and ground pork, he said.
“Clearly this language was produced by long-time COOL opponents who legislated in the dark of night under the guise of solving an issue, when really their intentions completely undermine the will of the American consumers and producers,” he said.
The repeal once again allows meatpackers to deliberately deceive consumers, he said.
R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said Congress underhandedly is depriving consumers of their right to know where the beef and pork families consume was born, raised and slaughtered.
“In secret and without debate, congressional leaders added the repeal of COOL in a must-pass spending bill knowing they could accomplish their self-serving ends without the risk of public input or debate,” he said.
“This is government at its worse,” he said...
more
http://www.capitalpress.com/Livestock/20151218/livestock-groups-split-over-cool-repeal
Congress Repeals ‘COOL’ Meat Labeling Provision
Move Saves United States From Harmful Trade Retaliation From Canada, Mexico
Source: National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)
Dec 18, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 18, 2015 – With today’s passage of a fiscal 2016 catch-all federal spending bill that includes repeal of the meat labeling provision of the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law, the United States avoided harmful retaliation from its two biggest trading partners. The National Pork Producers Council, which last week drafted and sent to congressional lawmakers a letter signed by 248 other organizations urging labeling repeal, welcomed the move.
The COOL statute requires meat to be labeled with the country where the animal from which it was derived was born, raised and harvested. (It also applies to fish, shellfish, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and certain nuts.)
Canada and Mexico brought cases against COOL to the World Trade Organization, which ruled that it violated U.S. international trade obligations, discriminating against Canadian and Mexican livestock sent to the United States to be fed out and processed. The decision authorized Canada and Mexico to put retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods going to those countries – the No. 1 and No. 2 U.S. export markets. The WTO set the retaliation level at $1 billion annually.
Congress approved the so-called omnibus bill with language repealing the labeling provision for beef and pork, thus avoiding retaliation. The Senate and House Agriculture Committee chairmen, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, were instrumental in getting the repeal language added to the spending measure.
“America’s pork producers are grateful that lawmakers, particularly Chairman Roberts and Chairman Conaway, recognized the economic harm we faced from retaliation because of the WTO-illegal COOL law,” said NPPC President Dr. Ron Prestage, a veterinarian and pork producer from Camden, S.C. “I know tariffs on U.S. pork would have been devastating to me and other pork producers.”
According to Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes, the average U.S. pork producer currently is losing money on each hog marketed, and those losses would have been exacerbated significantly under retaliation from Canada and Mexico.
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NPPC is the global voice for the U.S. pork industry, protecting the livelihoods of America’s 67,000 pork producers, who abide by ethical principles in caring for their animals, in protecting the environment and public health and in providing safe, wholesome, nutritious pork products to consumers worldwide. For more information, visit www.nppc.org.
NFU Praises Parts of the Omnibus-Tax Extenders Package, Voices Concern Over Others
Source: National Farmers Union (NFU)
Dec 18, 2015
WASHINGTON (December 18, 2015) – National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson praised parts of the omnibus-tax extenders package that was passed today by both chambers of Congress, offering tepid approval of Congress’ work to fund the government and extend important tax credits for the benefit of farmers, ranchers and rural communities.
“The passage of these two bills provides a level of certainty not achieved in the last several years,” said Johnson. “While stability is important and the number of riders was minimized, valuable programs such as Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL), a popular provision for both producers and consumers, were wiped off the books as part of this backroom deal.”
Johnson noted that NFU called on Congress to pass an omnibus free of legislative riders. “Fortunately, basic protections for farmers under the Packers and Stockyard Act, biotech labeling, important environmental regulations and other provisions were not subject to hasty and irresponsible change through misuse of the spending package,” said Johnson. “Increases in spending levels in some program areas were also an important step forward, but reductions in other programs was a disappointing step back.”
“We appreciate the increase in funding for a number of important areas including direct farm loans, the Food Safety Outreach Program, and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE),” said Johnson. “Likewise, we are thankful for stable funding in areas such as the Rural Energy for America program and Value-Added Producer Grants. We are, however, disappointed in cuts to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and lack of additional discretionary funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Accounts.”
NFU also viewed the tax extenders package as an important step forward, but was disappointed it lacked a longer horizon, especially within the renewable fuels sector. Credits such as Section 179, charitable deduction for real property, and the deduction of food inventory are now permanent. Unfortunately, credits such as the biofuel producer credit, the production tax credit, and other renewable fuel incentives were only extended for 2015 and 2016. Fortunately, other renewable energy provisions like wind and solar received longer-term, favorable treatment.
“Farmers need tax certainty and this package in part provides that,” said Johnson. “At the same time, our members also recognize that renewable sources of energy provide both an economic opportunity and a means to fight climate change, which has begun to impact their operations. Unfortunately, Congress chose to only extend these important renewable credits for a short time, which provides uncertainty for those producers committed to tackling climate change.”
National Farmers Union has been working since 1902 to protect and enhance the economic well-being and quality of life for family farmers, ranchers and rural communities through advocating grassroots-driven policy positions adopted by its membership.
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