U.S. House Subcommittee Examines Implications of Trade Retaliations Over COOL

Last week the U.S. House Ag Committee’s Livestock and Foreign Ag Subcommittee held a public hearing to examine the implications of potential retaliatory measures against the United States in response to its country-of-orgin labeling or COOL requirements for beef and pork.
One of the seven witnesses at the hearing was Harris Ranch Company Special Projects Manager Mike Smith. He began by calling COOL a solution looking for a problem and urged Congress to take action and repeal it. He continues his testimony discussing the possible trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico.
Smith: “Canada and Mexico are two of the beef industry’s top export markets — worth roughly $1 billion a piece. That is big money for any industry. If we lose access to those markets, it will have profoundly negative impact on all U.S. beef producers. All of our current global market access equates to approximately $350 per fed steer and heifer marketed today. If we lose one-third of that, roughly $115 will be taken directly out of the pocket of every cattlemen in the United States. But the monetary losses are not all of the problem. The vigorous defense of COOL by our government sends an anti-trade signal to international community. The WTO keeps telling us that COOL violates our trade agreements but our government keeps saying, ‘No it does not.’ Future trading partners will look at this issue closely and use it before they ink any trade deals with us. I’m certain we would do the same, if we saw similar behavior from our trading partners.”