Canada Takes a Stand on Resolving M-COOL
The M-COOL issues continues to dominate the livestock sector news as Canada's ag minister continues to press ahead with trying to get the Americans to use common sense in resolving the issue. Albeit the Americans have many issues on their plate, so this may not appear to be that important to the US president and his administration.
The Canadian Pork Council is happy to participate in unified efforts between Canadian governments at both the federal and provincial levels, and the Canadian livestock industry, to communicate the collective determination to achieve a permanent resolution of the country-of-origin labelling dispute with the United States.
The CPC, along with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, were part of a Canadian delegation led by Ritz, three provincial agriculture ministers – Ron Kostyshyn from Manitoba, Saskatchewan ag minister Lyle Stewart, and Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Verlyn Olson – who met with U.S. meat industry leaders at the annual North American Meat Association (NAMA) Outlook Conference in Chicago.
In a statement from the CPC, "We continue to work closely with the Government of Canada in a WTO dispute process which began in 2009 and which in 2012 found the U.S. to be out of compliance with its international obligations in how it administers country-of-origin labelling."
Minister Ritz, in his remarks to U.S. industry leaders in Chicago, left no doubt that Canada will, if necessary, impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports to Canada if the U.S. fails to come into compliance with its WTO obligations on COOL.
"However, it is our view that a resolution to the COOL issue is available now through the Farm Bill currently being debated in the U.S. Congress," the CPC says. "We remain hopeful the United States, rather than the WTO, will take the lead to resolve this issue and to restore the open border conditions which history shows have been mutually advantageous in positioning the North American livestock and meat industry to compete most favourably in the world meat market."
Andrew Dickson, the general manager of Manitoba Pork Council also applauds the stand taken by Canada's agriculture ministers on M-COOL.
Dickson says it was critical for Canada's agriculture ministers to emphasize Canada's resolve to have the legislation changed to end its discriminatory effects.
"From Canada's perspective the changes the USDA made to the labelling still does not resolve the issue of segregation occurring at the packing plant level," he said. "That essentially ices out Canada from being able to sell livestock into the United States.
It's a little bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."
Dickson says the minister is very clear in the Canadian view these amendments made in May by USDA do not meet the answer that Canada had expected as a result of the decision made by the WTO almost a year ago now and it's very frustrating.
"It's costing Canadian livestock producers over a billion dollars every year from the effects of this legislation and costing U.S. processors and farmers money," he said "It's not helping their industry become efficient."
Dickson says the ministers clearly stated Canada and the U.S. have built up an integrated North American livestock industry and COOL essentially brings an iron curtain down on that industry and creates costs on both sides of the border.
"These costs are particularly evident in the United States where processors are closing plants, and consumers are paying the added costs to the producers," adds Dickson.
Sask Pork chair Florian Possberg says discussions aimed at finalizing a new U.S. farm bill offer an opportunity to correct M-COOL in the U.S.
"I know there's a conference early in 2014 where the ag ministers from across western Canada will be attending in the U.S. where this will be a hot topic," says Possberg. "We're finding that, quite frankly, there's a lot of American legislators that agree with us. The National Pork Producers Council in the U.S. and the American Meat Association are strongly opposed to the way the Americans have written their own rules for their processors."
He says because they're in negotiations over the next five year farm bill, dealing with this Country of Origin Labelling would be a very opportune time to right a big wrong the way they've written their legislation.
Possberg says there's good business to accomplish if the two countries cooperate and he's confident common sense will prevail and that will happen. •
By Harry Siemens