A group of food, ag and manufacturing representatives are calling on Congress to take action on the issue of the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law. The COOL Reform Coalition sent a letter to Congress, asking for immediate action to put together a contingency plan for the COOL law, which the group says, as it stands now, could cause other countries to retaliate.

On November 14, 2014, our concerns were underscored by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s statement that the COOL law does not provide the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the discretion necessary to change COOL requirements to ensure compliance with U.S. trade obligations…

The COOL Reform Coalition, co-chaired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, does not oppose country of origin labeling requirements but believes that modifications to COOL are required to ensure its consistency with U.S. international trade obligations. On October 20, 2014, a World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel released a report declaring that the U.S. COOL revised rule was non-compliant. The governments of Mexico and Canada, which brought the case to the WTO, would be authorized to retaliate against the U.S. by imposing tariffs on U.S. manufactured goods and agricultural products in the event of a final WTO adjudication on the matter, which is expected in the second half of 2015.

The coalition says the U.S. only needs a contigency plan should the WTO find us non-compliant with U.S. trade obligations.