Trade war looms over meat

WASHINGTON — A CanadaU.S. trade war is apparently looming as the federal government threatens “retaliatory measures” against the United States in a continuing dispute over meat labelling.

The U.S. government announced new regulations Thursday on “country-of-origin labelling” (COOL) that would track beef and hogs from livestock right through the meat-processing and distribution systems.

Tom Vilsack, U.S. agriculture secretary, said the new rules are aimed at resolving the tense trade dispute between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

“USDA remains confident that these changes will improve the overall operation of the program and also bring the mandatory COOL requirements into compliance with U.S. international trade obligations,” he said in a statement.

But Canada sees little evidence of any serious U.S. attempt to resolve the issue.

“Canada is extremely disappointed with the regulatory changes put forward by the United States today,” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Trade Minister Ed Fast said in a joint release.

The ministers said the U.S. regulations will not bring the Americans into compliance with last year’s ruling by the World Trade Organization, which found the labelling system discriminated against foreign livestock and was not consistent with U.S. trade agreements.