Unsurprising to many in the food industry, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) compliance panel ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico on the country-of-origin labeling law (COOL law) dispute Monday, finding the amended COOL measures treated Canadian and Mexican livestock less favorable than those from the US.
Specifically, the WTO concluded “the amended COOL measure increases the original COOL measure's detrimental impact on the competitive opportunities of imported livestock in the US market, because it necessitates increased segregation of meat and livestock according to origin; entails a higher recordkeeping burden; and increases the original COOL measure's incentive to choose domestic over imported livestock.”