New COOL deception?

[ASRG]

We thought we won COOL. Now it seems the USDA has upped the ante and actually is proposing even more draconian measures!
The old rules, that were successfully challenged at the WTO, said co-mingled beef and pork must be labelled as "product of Canada and the USA".
The new proposed rules would be meat could no longer be co-mingled, but must be kept seperate and labelled "raised and fed in Canada, slaughtered in the USA"!
This of course will be a real problem for USA packers killing Canadian beef...or American feedlots feeding Canadian feeders (labelled "born in Canada, fed and slaughtered in the USA").
The added costs of seperating carcasses and labelling will put a real discount on Canadian cattle entering the US system.

[Horse]

I realy dont know if this is such a big thing. I worked in a seed cleaning plant yrs ago and we shiped grass seed all over the world, if it was say going to holand we had stensels that was in dutch so thats what we put on the bag along with we weighed it in kilos before PET blessed us with metric I dont think that added much cost as we had to put something on there anyway.

[kato]

Where did you hear this? It sounds like a proposal that was going around a few years ago.

[grassfarmer]

From Ritz:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-
release/statement-by-minister-ritz-on-the-us-
country-of-origin-labelling-cool-1766161.htm

From CCA:

http://www.cattle.ca/media/file/original/1263_CCA_
Statement_08_03_2013_USDA_proposal_for_COOL_wi
ll_not_result_in_compliance_with_WTO_obligations.p d
f

[kato]

I found some write ups on it.

Typical...............

[Happytrails]

Looks like a very poor response from the Obama administration via the USDA. Pretty much fits my definition of bullying. We appease a bully at our own peril. I'm going to send the CCA a cheque for $100 for work on this. How about some others??

[rkaiser]

A cheque to CCA......??? lol good one happy trails to that hundred bucks

[grassfarmer]

Fools and their money and all that....

[wilagro]

No worries...Gerry Ritz is standing by you...just like he stood by the hog farmers as American and FINNISH pork came into our market.

What a BUFFOON.

[Happytrails]

rk and gf i really hope your departure is slowed by trying to take it with you!! If we won't stand up for ourselves get ready for the steamroller.

[grassfarmer]

It's not about holding onto my money for the sake of
saving it - I just don't want to give it to an
organisation that will use it against my best interests
as they have so consistently done in recent years.
End of the day ABP/CCA can talk all they like about
negotiating with the US but truth is Canada has no
bargaining chips in this game. We have allowed the
Canadian beef sector to be totally focussed on
slipping product in the US back door ashamed to
promote it as Canadian. When Uncle Sam no longer
needs it for whatever reason - oops, sorry Canada
you are SOL.

[rkaiser]

In addition to GF notes happy trails. Our effforts to open markets in China and other parts of the world without a cent of ABP / CCA money will reward you if you stay in the industry long enough and choose to go another route than sucking the American tit.