Farms.com Home   Ag Industry News

Canada’s Agriculture Minister going to Washington to reaffirm country’s stance on COOL

Will be joined by members of Canada’s cattle and pork industries

By Diego Flammini, Farms.com

Gerry Ritz, Canada’s Agriculture Minister, along with members of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canadian Pork Council and Canadian Meat Council are heading to Washington to discuss Canada’s opinion when it comes to the hot-button topic, COOL.

COOL, which stands for Country Of Origin Labeling, is an initiative by the United States where any meat sold in grocery stores is required to identify where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered.

"Canada continues to call upon the U.S. to comply with the WTO ruling and eliminate COOL's discriminatory treatment against Canadian hogs and cattle,” said Minister Gerry Ritz in a release. “Our government will always stand with our farmers and ranchers, and we will not shy away from taking whatever steps may be necessary, including retaliation, to achieve a fair resolution.”

The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling Minister Ritz referred to is in October 2014 when they agreed with Canada and Mexico that putting COOL labels on meat products discriminates against imports. The October 2014 ruling was the third, the others in November of 2011 and June of 2012.

At the time, the Canadian cattle and hog industries estimated more than $900 million in losses and Canadian government officials threatened to put tariffs on meat imports from the United States.

Agricultural trade between Canada and the United States in 2013 totaled $44 billion.


Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz


Trending Video

Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz

Video: Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz


The 12-day war between Iran-Israel came to an end sending crude oil futures plunging as the big fund speculators removed the war risk premium.

The weather risk premium in the Ag complex is sending corn, wheat and soybean futures lower on month-end selling ahead of the market moving USDA quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports on June 30th.

Instead, funds were chasing and sending tech stocks higher with the S&P 500/NASDAQ indexes setting new all-time record highs!

June 1 USDA Hogs and pigs report was slightly bearish while the U.S. $ Index traded to new contract lows as the de-dollarization that began in 2014 continues.

Feed in the form of soybean meal futures for livestock producers got cheaper, trading to new contract lows.

The Stats Canada seeded acreage update was bullish canola and wheat.