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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWTO Says U.S. Consumers Don’t Need to Know Where Meat Comes From
American consumers should not have to put up with this
http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/10/26/wto-says-u-s-consumers-dont-need-know-meat-comes/
This week, the World Trade Organization (WTO) finally issued a decision in the challenge made by Mexico and Canada to the U.S.s country-of-origin (COOL) labeling rules for meat. And environmental and food safety groups are hopping mad, as WTO upheld the contention made by those countries, supported by multi0national meat packers, that the rules unfairly impede global trade.
The meatpacking lobby has lost the COOL debate from the court of public opinion to the Court of Appeals to the halls of Congress so they are taking their complaint to the faceless unelected bureaucrats in Geneva, said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. When the meat cannot get its way here in America, it is trying to use the WTO to overturn the will of the American people.
The current U.S. rules, which went into effect in 2013, require that meat sold in groceries be labeled to show separately where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered. The WTOs ruling agrees that those regulations unfairly discriminate against imported meat to give an unfair edge to domestic products. In the ongoing dispute, then-Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack suggested last November that WTO should resolve the dispute and that the U.S. would abide by what the WTO decided.
Meat packers insists that the labeling rules have cost them profits, and the Canadian government threatened to put a tariff on U.S. meats and other food products imported from the U.S. The North American Meat Association and the American Meat Institute hailed the decision. But Food & Water Watch said that consumers deserved to know where their meat came from.
People have the right to know where the food they feed their families comes from, said Hauter. It is nonsensical that a label that lets consumers know the origin of their food is a trade barrier.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)That would be an interesting battle. You could no longer discriminate against California wines in France or Italy based on origin.
eridani
(51,907 posts)I favor WA State wines, and wines from Oregon and California second.
One fond memory of biking in the Czech Republic with my husband in 2000 is the fresh kegs of pils-style beers at local bars. Each bar specializes in beers from one manufacturer. Upon returning home, we found that the imported bottled stuff was nowhere near as good as what we had while travelling. IMO, every place should have local flavors. Why else would you bother travelling at all?
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)some of these so called offshore packing houses? It ain't pretty. Talk about a garbage pit and that is putting it mildly. If our meat isn't Inspected by our inspectors we will not touch it. So far Costco has the stiffest enforcement of packing house regs. And thy know were there product is coming from. Their meat products are marked as to origin and the workers will tell you folks won't touch it. The more we consumers bitch the more the more responsible the retailers become. They will make damn sure made in U.S. products are available.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Imagine how bad Chinese meat might be.
https://consumersunion.org/news/cu-calls-on-usda-to-tighten-salmonella-standard/
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)comes from.
You'll eat your spiderpigapple harvest/born/grown in Laos and like it.
eridani
(51,907 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)RebelOne
(30,947 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)The investor states will trump all sovereign laws, regulations, whatever.
Marblehead
(1,268 posts)X_Digger
(18,585 posts)markpkessinger
(8,401 posts). . . why should that consumer not be free to do so?
markpkessinger
(8,401 posts). . . defer to the WTO on such a matter?
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)I had to do a little reading but:
The Obama administration in particular is keen on furthering the interests of COOL supporters and has gone out of its way to make the rules as onerous as possible on importers of foreign cattle.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/221589-consumers-win-as-wto-condemns-protectionist-meat-labels