Then people can buy NO meat at all when they realize they won't be able to tell the difference between the poisonous varieties and the other ones.

Certainly not as much as there is between any of those and European beef (which is growth-hormone free and generally grass and forage fed, from cows that actually graze and aren't kept in pens and fattened on corn).

And Europe is filled with feedlots and hormone injected meats it's called lamb.

Meat from animals treated with growth hormone is banned from import to the EU. Whether those animals are sheep or cattle.

And if you buy meat in a grocery in the UK, or France, or Germany? Probably raised and slaughtered within 50 miles and from hormone-free, forage-fed cattle. Just the regular stuff at the supermarket butcher's counter. In the States that sort of thing is a premium product.

who buys directly from local farmers. The only change for us will be no more 'fresh' fish at the grocery, and far less chicken, since the local butcher charges $6 a pound for chicken, as opposed to the $2.50 a pound we get on sale at the grocery. But I've been cutting down on meat anyway, since my first gout attack.

I thought we didn't lose these things.
You know, so these free trade deals would be okay

where it came from, I just go for the cheap ass chicken breast & whatever fish I can afford. Who knew there were options.

on the package for people who think our meat is better than anyone else. You can assume it's foreign if there is no "Made in the USA, not by foreigners" sticker.

If the difference between more profits and less profits is a sticker, you can be sure they'll use it.

slap tariffs on some of our products if we don't change the requirements. We can stick with our rules.

The flag would be no different from a label saying "Made in USA" or whatever variant you like. All that would happen under your scenario is another case before the WTO and another loss.

"The labels tell consumers what countries the meat is from: for example, “born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States,” or “born, raised and slaughtered in the United States.”

The WTO ruled Monday that the U.S. labels put Canadian and Mexican livestock at a disadvantage, rejecting a U.S. appeal after a similar WTO decision last year. The Obama administration had already revised the labels once to try to comply with previous WTO rulings."

Not to be rude, but did you even read the story?

to buy it.

It doesn't stop an American, or a Canadian, company from labeling it with country of origin if they want to.

Unless the US law is changed, US companies would still have to label their meet sold here. Canadians could have theirs sold here only if labeled according to our laws. But Canadians could impose tariffs on some of our exports to Canada as retaliation.

Congress will now decide if we change our laws to prevent a trade war, or just say tough. Some American ranchers are for that. Other meat producers are against the laws because it's a pain to comply.

We'll see what happens.

You do realize that this all about the WTO ruling against the US over a federal law, right? This isn't about voluntary behavior, it's about whether the government of the United States has the authority to make laws within its own borders.

As for whether a company could choose to label its meat with its point of origin, I don't believe there would be an issue with that. That's as long as nobody falsely labels it. When that happens, I have to think the traditional means of regulation, via the FTC, would be hampered by this ruling because penalizing a company for falsely claiming an American origin would effectively be the same as requiring it to label the country of origin in the first place. If all the American supplies choose to voluntarily label it as of American origin, doesn't that disadvantage the foreign suppliers in the way the labeling requirement did?

It's hard to make something clear when you haven't said it before now.

You are correct. There is no requirement to change the law. There's just a huge financial penalty to be borne by American companies as long as the law is in effect. Regardless, that doesn't change the fact that you seem to think American flag stickers can somehow be required on meat without running afoul of the WTO decision.

If Congress changes the law, beef producers here can still wrap their meat in a cloth flag if they want. And in fact a Canadian producer could wrap their meat in a Canadian flag, although most don't seem to want to do that.

Actually, you never made it clear. I guessed at your voluntary scheme a couple of posts ago and I laid out a very specific problem with it. Remember the issue of false labeling?

What bullshit...I could give a fuck whether Canada and Mexico are at a "disadvantage", when it's being sold HERE.

Makes my blood boil.

...And can screw us. I like knowing where my chicken and seafood come from. (Just as I think GMOs should be labeled.)

food from China several years ago? Then melamine showed up in baby formula in China a couple of years ago.

or is that going to be litigated next?

Fuck these globalizers.

The people in favor of trade deals are not actually working people. They do not represent our interests. They represent corporate interests. They would be thrilled if our standard of living plummeted so we would be forced to work for a pittance.

There's a lesson here, Mr. Obama. You lie down with dogs, you gonna get fleas.

The consumer has a right to know what she is buying -- and when customers are kept in ignorance, there is no case whatever for free trade. The case for free trade is based on the idea that an informed consumer will be able to obtain what she wants to buy more cheaply under free trade.

The next step will be a case brought by US exporters against the European Union to have GMO labeling and limitation declared a protectionist barrier to trade. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

and of course you are right, but that is not the issue. The issue is GMO labelling of American exports to Europe, or other countries that require GMO labeling or limit the sale of GMO goods.

We want country-of-origin labeling, but the WTO is taking it away. What the country wants is beside the point. Applying the same standard to GMO labeling in Europe, it would certainly be held that laws requiring GMO labeling or limiting the sale of GMO products will be found to be protectionist barriers to trade and so to be inadmissible. That would reinforce the opposition to GMO labeling in this country.

But what a finding against GMO labeling in Europe means is that other countries (USA in particular) could impose retaliatory tariffs on their exports. That is the only form of enforcement. Canada has proposed a number of retaliatory tariffs on our products if our labeling laws are not repealed, as Congress is preparing to do.

Would Europe comply with such a ruling? The technocrats would, but that would give more momentum to the volkische nationalist opposition. People who support GMO labeling, as I do, would find themselves in bed with neonazis! In any case, feeling seems to be strong enough that some European countries would defy the WTO on this, with or without regime change. Would the US then impose retaliatory tariffs? I think so -- the GMO lobby is strong here -- but that would be a further boost to the European opposition. Looks like a step toward the collapse of globalization.

Notice the WTO didn't hear from cunsomers, citizens or victims of their decisions. But we are the ones who have to suffer from these pro corporate rulings. Let them put tariffs on our products that's better than not knowing where your meat comes from.

the US should tell the Harper conservatives to shove it up Harper's ass...This government has been proven wrong on almost everything they do to screw the Canadian people...The US should never bow down to the WTO...Actually, the country would be better off to trash can all their trade deals...

I live in Canada...

... "consumers, citizens or victims of (WTO) decisions" in the TPP negotiations? Close your eyes, my rapid, anxious friend, and you'll be looking right at him - NOBODY!

Which makes this post a FINE argument against the TPP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee has voted to get rid of labels on packages of meat that say where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered.

The House Agriculture Committee voted 38-6 to repeal a "country-of-origin" labeling law for beef, pork and poultry Wednesday — just two days after the World Trade Organization ruled against parts of the law. The labels tell consumers what countries the meat is from: for example, "born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States" or "born, raised and slaughtered in the United States."

The WTO ruled Monday that the U.S. labels put Canadian and Mexican livestock at a disadvantage, rejecting a U.S. appeal after a similar WTO decision last year.

The Obama administration had already revised the labels once to try to comply with previous WTO rulings. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it's now up to Congress to change the law to avoid retaliation — such as extra tariffs — from the two neighbor countries.

more
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8c674addc7254df083367a6e9821a5b9/house-consider-repeal-meat-labeling-law

They can move fast when their bosses tell them to do so.