On December 7, 2015, the World Trade Organization ("WTO") authorized Canada and Mexico to impose retaliatory tariffs of $780M (Canada) and $228M (Mexico) on U.S. products as a consequence of the seven-year dispute over the U.S. country-of-origin meat labeling ("COOL") rule, which required products to indicate where animals were born, raised, and slaughtered before the meat could be considered domestic. The WTO had ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico, finding U.S. COOL meat label rules in violation of WTO commitments. Canada and Mexico had requested a combined retaliation of more than $3B, considerably larger than the tariffs set by the WTO. The United States Trade Representative had requested that WTO lower the tariff amount to a total of $91M.
Although the House voted to repeal the COOL labels in June 2015, a response from the Senate is still pending. Indeed, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) soon after proposed the implementation of a voluntary country-of-origin label rule. Canadian ministers Freeland and MacAulay have stated that "if the U.S. Senate does not take immediate action to repeal COOL for beef and pork, Canada will quickly take steps to retaliate," and Mexico's economy ministry has said he is already working on removing benefits from some U.S. imports.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
