Congress shivers at $1 billion tariff threat, kills COOL
- Details
- Category: Free Trade & Regional Integration
- Published on Tuesday, 22 December 2015 05:14
Alison Web
AgWeb
December 18, 2015
The battle over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) between the U.S. and its North American neighbors may finally be, well, cooling off.
Thanks to its inclusion in the omnibus spending bill passed Friday, COOL has finally been repealed after years of controversy. Intended to provide more transparency to consumers about their food, COOL has been a sticking point with Canada and Mexico. Those two countries have asserted that the law violates their trade agreements with the U.S. and puts their products at an economic disadvantage.
After the WTO recently ruled in Canada and Mexico’s favor on the labeling, the two countries threatened to slap as much as $1 billion in tariffs on U.S. products.