The broad spending and tax legislation compromise unveiled by House Republicans Tuesday night included a very big announcement on the repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat to prevent more than $1 billion in trade sanctions from Mexico and Canada approved last week by the WTO.

“Farm Bureau supports COOL programs that are in line with world trade rules,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said. “Current COOL programs, unfortunately, risk serious retaliation by Canada and Mexico now that the World Trade Organization has approved more than $1 billion in tariffs against American beef, pork and other U.S. commodities if COOL is not changed.”

However, the entire ag community isn’t behind the repeal. National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson said the organization was deeply frustrated and angered by language used in the bill. “Clearly this language was produced by long-time COOL opponents who legislated in the dark of the night under the guise of solving an issue, when really their intentions completely undermine the will of American consumers and producers,” said Johnson. “NFU is furious that yet again the dysfunction of Congress has enabled this to happen.”

NFU supports voluntary COOL and believes it would solve the WTO dispute while still maintaining the integrity of the COOL label.

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) welcomed the announcement, but know there is much work to do before the omnibus bill becomes law. It has been made very clear that retaliation will occur if repeal isn’t mandated. The CCA will continue to work with its U.S. allies over the coming days as Congressmen and Senators consider this legislation to advocate that we expect nothing less than full repeal of COOL to avoid imposition of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products. We encourage the House and the Senate to pass the bill with the COOL repeal intact as soon as possible. Canada will be in a position to impose retaliatory tariffs on Friday December 18 and we hope that awareness of this fact in Washington will be useful to avoid retaliatory action becoming necessary.