FMI opposes country-of-origin labeling proposal

Food Marketing Institute (FMI) submitted comments to USDA criticizing its new country-of-origin labeling rules. USDA says the proposed rules comply with WTO obligations. FMI’s regulatory counsel Erick Liebermen disputed that characterization, saying it would be “unfair, and unreasonably burdensome, to require the food retailing and wholesaling industries to invest tens of millions of dollars retooling labels, upgrading equipment, training staff and segregating more product in stores and in the supply chain to comply with a regulation crafted for purposes of meeting WTO requirements, before the WTO actually issues a ruling on the regulation.” Read FMI’s full comments here.