Update on Country Of Origin Labeling by Professor Brown

PROFESSOR BROWN UPDATE ON COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELING CRISIS

Quick Take Away:  Its back to court for the whole issue.  30 TIMES  MORE than ACTUAL damages:  That’s what the USA is saying about the claims of Canada and Mexico of $3 BILLION in economic damages.   USA says its more like $90 MILLION in damages, MAYBE.  Looks like a major difference of opinion that will keep this tied up in court for a long long long time.

Status:  There are two bills in the US Senate that have been proposed to deal with COOL.  One (The Roberts Bill) has the support of the meat packers industry and the other (The Stabenow-Hoeven Bill) has the support of consumer groups.

The first bill, proposed by Senator Roberts, would repeal COOL completely. This bill was proposed as an amendment to a Senate transportation bill.  The bill DID NOT have enough support to even come to a vote on the floor.  So it is dead.  No more possibility here.  Further, the bill was proposed as an amendment to a long-term transportation bill that had ZERO  chance of passage in the House of Representatives, so it was a non-starter from the beginning.

The second bill proposed by Senators Stabenow and Hoeven is a stand alone bill with support from both Republicans and Democrats.  This bill proposes a repeal of the current COOL law and replaces it with a VOLUNTARY COOL law.  While consumer groups support this, Canada, Mexico, the meat packing industry and other farm groups strongly OPPOSE this approach.

Political note:  The major damages claimed against the USA are from Canada.  These damages are from the WESTERN (Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia) provinces, and are not an EASTERN (Ontario, Quebec) political priority.  Canada has recently called elections and its not probable that a new government is going to immediately go to war with the their largest trading partner (the USA) over something that is not important to a majority of the electorate.

CONCLUSION:  There is no conclusion, as this whole issue is way up in the air, and now that its back in the World Trade Court for further litigation, no one has any incentive to change anything.