NFU Renews Call for Support of COOL
WASHINGTON - National Farmers Union today strongly urged the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to defend mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) against a World Trade Organization (WTO) challenge. The Canadian and Mexican governments claim the labeling law violates existing WTO obligations.“The COOL law is an important issue that affects American consumers on a daily basis,” NFU President Roger Johnson said in a letter to USTR Ron Kirk. “COOL aims at making trade policy more transparent, and expands public participation – two key objectives outlined by the Obama Administration’s trade policy agenda.”
After years of delay, NFU played a key role to ensure mandatory COOL was finally implemented last fall. COOL gives consumers the opportunity to make informed food purchases for their families while, at the same time, providing American food producers the opportunity to distinguish their products in the retail marketplace.
NFU remains committed to seeing COOL implemented and enforced as Congress intended. “NFU is ready and willing to provide any means necessary for the USTR office to successfully defend our COOL law against any and all WTO challenges,” Johnson said.
TheCattleSite News Desk