The Canadian government requested the formation of a World Trade Organization compliance panel to challenge the United States’ recently changed Country of Origin Labeling rules. The U.S. government has stated that the changes to the COOL rules have made them compliant with the WTO, and Canada and Mexico have challenged the rules as being discriminatory.

"We had hoped to avoid having to again resort to the WTO to resolve this matter. However, despite consistent rulings by the WTO, the U.S. government continues its unfair trade practices, which are severely damaging to Canadian industry and jobs," Trade Minister Ed Fast and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a joint statement.

Canada believes the U.S. "has failed to bring its COOL measure into conformity with its WTO obligations. We believe that the recent amendments to the COOL measure will further hinder the ability of Canadian cattle and hog producers to freely compete in the U.S. market," they added.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Canada has threatened retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods, but it has not enacted them until it gets approval from the WTO.

Source: Wall Street Journal