Agricultural News
USDA Rush to Implement Country of Origin Labeling Ahead of WTO Deadline Could Prove Burdensome to Beef Producers
Tue, 07 May 2013 16:21:16 CDT
The USDA is rushing to get a Country of Origin Labeling rule in place to meet a late May deadline set by the World Trade Organization. The agency opened a comment period on the proposed rule in March and has left itself precious little time for any revisions to the text.
Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, spoke with Ron Hays recently about how he believes the process will work from here as the USDA continues to assess the comments it has received.
"We do know that they're looking at the comments, and they should by law, whether or not they make any changes, we think that that's probably very unlikely. It took them a long time to get to this point and even though we're not happy with this proposed rule, I believe that USDA feels that this is the only option that they have. And, right now, they're really kind of under the gun because they have to get something finalized and submitted to the WTO by May 23rd. So, we're looking at just a little over two weeks from now. So that's a pretty tall order for USDA to make that deadline."
Woodall said the USDA has painted itself into a corner and hasn't left itself any room to maneuver for making additional changes to the rule. He said there is not much they can do at this point but go forward with the version it now has on the table.
"I think that we will see the rule as it was published back in March become final and at that time it will be up to the WTO to determine whether or not it meets the criteria of fixing country of origin labeling. And the conversation that we've had with our trading partners in Canada and Mexico, we do not believe that is going to be the case. So, unfortunately, I think we're setting ourselves up for retaliation from two of our biggest markets for export of U.S. beef."
Not only is the USDA caught in a bind, Woodall said, but the U.S. agriculture industry in the United States is under the gun as well. Many inside the beef industry feel the immediate implementation of the COOL rule as it now stands will be onerous for U.S. producers.
"We also feel that implementation immediately will just have a tremendous burden on our industry because when you look at the economic analysis that USDA did on this proposal rule, basically all they looked at was the cost of new labels. They didn't take into account that it may require new labeling machines, different sorting practices in the packing plant. So they really didn't take into account all of the impacts here.
"So, if we implement this rule, then you're going to have a situation where all segments of the beef chain will have to make changes, will have to make investments, on something that very well may be stricken down by the WTO in six months to a year's time. So all of that implementation cost will have been for naught.
"So in our comments, and in the comments that a lot of other groups put in place, and also a letter that we sent to the USDA this last week, we have asked that they go ahead and finalize a rule that will meet the WTO deadline, but they'd give us at least a one-year implementation period so we can see how the WTO process play out."
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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