Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America released a statement about the house vote on country of origin labeling (COOL). Last week, the House voted to repeal COOL, meaning that labels on meat, pork, and chicken would no longer have to state where the food came from.
He said in a statement, “yesterday the House voted to deny American consumers basic information about where their food comes from. In supporting a repeal of country of origin labeling for meat, pork, and chicken, Congress bowed to overblown threats of retaliation from Canada and Mexico and took action prematurely before the case at the WTO was fully settled.”
The World Trade Organization has repeatedly ruled against the United States on this matter. Canada and Mexico allege that these labels unfairly target products exported by them, and have threatened retaliatory tariffs. In fact, those countries said they intent to levy $3 billion in penalties on America’s products that are exported to their countries.
Polls find that Americans want mandatory country of origin labeling on meat. The Consumer Federation of American wants the Senate to wait until the entire WTO process is finalized before acting.
