Washington, D.C. - R-CALF USA has filed formal comments with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to emphasize that the group believes it is fundamentally contrary to the U.S. Constitution for USTR to agree that foreign governments - specifically Canada and Mexico - have any standing whatsoever to bring a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against our constitutionally passed mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law.
"We urge the USTR to take deliberate and decisive steps to quash Canada's and Mexico's attempts to interfere with the United States' sovereign right to inform U.S. consumers - using the most accurate and truthful means possible - about the origins of the food they purchase for themselves and their families," said
The U.S. COOL law imposes no duty or restrictions on any foreign government, nor imposes any limits on the volume or type of commodities that a foreign country may export to the
Also, foreign countries are not obligated, in any way, to export to the
In addition, COOL jurisdiction is exclusively limited to
"Thus, our domestic COOL law does not affect international trade agreements, and it is fundamentally inappropriate for the WTO to even entertain a foreign country's complaint against our domestic COOL law," Bullard emphasized.
In addition to the comprehensive comments submitted on Monday to USTR - which address each of the eight separate allegations raised against the U.S. COOL law by
"COOL enables consumers to freely choose between food products of various origins," said Bullard. "Consumers' choices will influence the market demand for products from any given country. This is how a competitive market is supposed to work, and neither
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).