Changes Requested for Interim Final COOL Rule

R-CALF USA believes Canada had too much influence over the Interim Final COOL Rule promulgated by USDA last year. According to R-CALF in a January exchange of letters between Canada's Ambassador to the WTO and the U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Peter Allgeier, the U.S. proposed to accommodate Canada's requested changes in the agency's Final COOL Rule in return for Canada's agreement not to pursue a WTO dispute for a period of eight months. Also, Canada requested concessions from USDA to allow the use of a mixed-origin label on products exclusively of U.S. origin and on meat derived from livestock imported into the U.S. for immediate slaughter.

Max Thornsberry, R-CALF USA President, says this should be a real eye opener for U.S. citizens. After more than six years of rulemaking that involved the efforts of thousands of U.S. consumers and U.S. producers he says USDA granted a foreign country the opportunity to dictate the final contents of the rule while U.S. consumers and producers were afforded no such opportunity. Thornsberry say in effect USDA surrendered the public's interest in order to cater to a foreign government.

According to Thornsberry this must be stopped. R-CALF USA is calling upon the new Agriculture Secretary to immediately reverse the inappropriate concessions made before he took office and to promulgate a new Final COOL Rule that conforms to the intent of Congress - that all meat produced exclusively from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. must bear the exclusive USA label - and nothing more.