Despite a change in the political party leading the nation, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) believes there are indications Canada will move forward with retaliation against the United States over its Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law.

Justin Trudeau, head of Canada’s Liberal Party, defeated Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party after a heated election. In response to a pre-election questionnaire from the Canadian cattlemen’s organization, Trudeau indicated that, if elected, he would continue to pursue retaliation against the United States over the COOL law. NPPC, which opposed COOL when it was being debated in Congress as part of the 2002 and 2008 farm bills, is urging Congress to repeal the labeling provisions for pork and beef. The House passed a repeal bill in June, but the Senate has yet to take up a similar measure.

In other pork industry news, after NPPC and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, weighed in on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) decision to stop serving pork products, BOP has put pork back on menus.

The decision to pull pork from the menu supposedly was based on a survey of federal inmates and on costs. NPPC and Grassley sent letters last Thursday to BOP Director Charles Samuels Jr., asking for more details on the decision. “Pork is a very economical, nutrient-dense protein that ought to be a food option for federal prisoners, and the U.S. pork industry has a variety of products that could meet BOP’s needs,” NPPC said in its letter. Despite the BOP’s reversal, Grassley is pressing the agency on the reasons it purged pork from prisons.