The vice chair of Manitoba Pork says U. S. farmers are not yet fully aware of the impact retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. Mandatory COOL could have on them.
Representatives of Manitoba Pork are in Minneapolis this week for the Minnesota Pork Congress and will be in Iowa next week for the Iowa Pork Congress as part of a trade advocacy mission.
U. S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling is expected to be a priority issue.
Manitoba Pork vice chair Rick Bergmann, who is in Banff this week for the Banff Pork Seminar and will join the trade mission next week, says support in the U. S. for a fix is building
Rick Bergmann-Manitoba Pork
I would say in general from some of the missions events that we've been at in the last while there's a strong indication from the grassroots producers that the discrimination that they're putting against Canadian producers is wrong.
They are concerned that they're treating their neighbors this way and so they're also aware, we've made them aware that some of these problems and discrimination needs to change before retaliation comes knocking on their door.
There's an awful lot of concern.
The American Meat Institute, producers, the list goes on and on.
There are so many people and organizations that are wanting the fix.
Right now it's at the USDA level and there needs to be a fix.
It's a shame that we're thinking of retaliation but it's a shame that we've been discriminated against in this way.
Bergmann notes while opposition to COOL in the U. S. continues to build many U.S. producers are unaware of the full impact retaliatory tariffs, that could come as early as the spring or summer of 2015, will have on the products they produce if Canada and Mexico are forced to go that route and how vulnerable they are.
Source: Farmscape