Federal Court Denies Request for Delay of COOL Implementation
A federal court in Washington has reportedly denied a feedlot company’s request to invalidate or delay implementation of the country-of-origin labeling (COOL) regulations adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2008. Easterday Ranches, Inc. v. USDA, No. __ (E.D. Wash., decided February 5, 2010). According to news sources, the company argued that the COOL regulations, which do not allow beef imported from Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the United States to be labeled as a U.S. product, conflicted with U.S. Treasury Department rules, would raise its recordkeeping and operational costs, and deter packers from paying fair prices for Canadian cattle. The Treasury rules apparently provide that beef is deemed a U.S. product if it undergoes “substantial transformation,” e.g., slaughter, within this country.
The court refused to postpone USDA’s rules and further declined to order the agency to create an exception to COOL allowing cattle imported from Canada and Mexico and slaughtered in the United States to be labeled as a U.S. product. The court reportedly determined that (i) COOL does not deny feedlots a fair price for their cattle; (ii) the Treasury Department rules relate to tariffs and do not conflict with the “retail-oriented” COOL regulations; and (iii) USDA cannot create an exception for beef without violating the COOL requirements Congress included in the Farm Bill. See Capital Press, February 14, 2010; Meatingplace.com, February 17, 2010.
Meanwhile, a cattle industry trade association reportedly cited the court’s ruling in a February 12, 2010, memorandum to the U.S. Trade Representative, arguing that it could “help in the defense of our COOL law against Canada’s and Mexico’s attack at the WTO [World Trade Organization].” According to an R-CALF USA spokesperson, “Much like the Easterday complaint filed in the U.S., both Canada’s and Mexico’s complaints filed at the WTO are seeking the same protection. And like Easterday, Canada and Mexico want to continue hiding the true origins of their foreign beef in the U.S. marketplace. The actions by Canada and Mexico truly are repugnant to U.S. consumers who deserve to know the origins of their food.” See R-CALF Press Release, February 15, 2010.
Further details about the WTO dispute appear in issues 304, 322, 323, 325 and 329 of this Update.
