Trade war with US likely averted: American bill would repeal meat labels

WASHINGTON (NEWS 1130) – A trade war between Canada and the US appears to have been averted, with US Congress drafting legislation that yields to its neighbours’ demands on meat-labelling.

The bill would repeal mandatory country-of-origin labelling on beef and pork, which would end a years-long dispute just before it escalated with a series of tariffs looming on US products.

Canada and Mexico have been set to impose more than $1 billion in punitive measures on a wide range of US goods including meat, to wine, chocolate and frozen orange juice.

They would pull back from retaliation if American lawmakers repeal country-of-origin labelling which is accused of harming meat exports, with support from the World Trade Organization.

US legislators are expected to begin debate Wednesday on a monster omnibus bill — a 2,000-page pile of legislation that makes a brief two-page reference to the meat labels.

The legislative package was negotiated between Republican and Democratic leaders and its most hotly debated provision is unlikely to be meat labels — but the loosening of a 40-year quasi-total ban on US oil exports.

Canada’s ambassador to the US, Gary Doer, welcomed the news but said he wouldn’t be celebrating until the bill passes both chambers of Congress and gets signed by the president.

“This is the result of a full-court press,” he said, referring to the government and business lobbying efforts over the years.

“(But) we won’t have a beer to celebrate — a Canadian beer to celebrate — until the president signs the bill.”

Votes could happen later this week, or early next week.

Supporters of country-of-origin labelling say consumers deserve to know where their meat comes from. Opponents say it doesn’t do anything for safety — for which there are already inspections.

Those critics call it a thinly disguised protectionist measure, designed to complicate the importing process for non-American livestock and make it more expensive.

They say Canadian meat exports plummeted as a result of decade-old country-of-origin labelling rules. John Masswohl of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association pointed to the example of Tyson Foods.

He said Canada used to send beef to four of its US facilities, and now exports to only two — and only on one day per week, so workers there can sort out which livestock comes from Canada.

“We think this is going to have a huge impact,” Masswohl said of the bill Wednesday.

“And it could have a pretty immediate impact in terms of the prices we receive.”

The bill lifts beef and pork from the list of products subject to country-of-origin labelling requirements, but exempts chicken for which country-of-origin labels will still apply.

That’s only one provision of a bill that could prompt noisy debate about energy and the environment. Its provisions allowing oil exports from the US would reverse a longstanding policy, implemented at the height of the 1970s energy scare.

That provision is a major win for the US oil industry and will anger many environmentalists. It would affect the American energy market, not to mention having a potential trickle-down effect on the US’s biggest oil supplier: Canada.