It’s time to reinstate COOL
By; Victor Martino
Contributing Editor
R-CALF USA, the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the U.S., is calling on President Trump to restore COOL (country of origin labeling) for beef as part of the current NAFTA negotiations.
“We urge President Trump to stay at the NAFTA negotiating table until all the deficiencies in that agreement are corrected. If those deficiencies that allow Canada and Mexico to maintain persistent and substantial price depressing trade surpluses cannot be corrected, the United States should withdraw from NAFTA. No deal is better than a partial deal that continues to drain the economic strength of the United States’ largest agricultural sector – our U.S. cattle industry, ” R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullord wrote in a statement sent to President Trump on May 24.
“Under NAFTA, the U.S. imports three times the volume and twice the value that it exports in cattle and beef, which forced the U.S. to absorb a price depressing $33 billion deficit during NAFTA’s pendency. The value of imports from Canada and Mexico increased 41 percent from 2012-13 to 2014-15, contributing to the unprecedented 2015 collapse in U.S. cattle prices,” Bullord added in his sharply-worded statement
“It is the swamp, the entrenched agricultural lobby representing transnational agribusinesses, that is resisting the President’s effort to properly renegotiate NAFTA. The President must not continue kowtowing to those transnational agribusinesses that have no loyalty whatsoever to America’s farmers and ranchers nor to America’s rural communities.
“Before President Trump leaves the NAFTA table, even temporarily, he should reinstate country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for beef so consumers can choose to buy American beef. He should revise NAFTA’s rules of origin to end the theft of the American ranchers’ trademark – their “Product of the USA” label, which transnational agribusinesses are now putting on beef born and raised exclusively in Canada and Mexico. He should include safeguards to protect American ranchers from price-destroying import surges such as the one that broke our cattle market in 2015-16. In addition, he should impose tariffs on cattle and beef from Canada and Mexico so that our American cattle industry can once again begin attracting young ranchers who are presently shut out of the ranching business because all the economic opportunities they would have had over the past 25 years have been fulfilled with undifferentiated imports.”
The cattle industry has sued the USDA to reinstate COOL, which was eliminated by Congress and President Obama in 2015 as part of NAFTA.
Since then imported beef from Mexico and Canada and elsewhere, often at wholesale costs cheaper than U.S. beef, has flooded the country, according to U.S. cattle and beef industry trade groups.
These groups and others believe restoring COOL will help level what they argue has become an uneven playing field for the cattle and beef industries under a NAFTA without the country of origin labeling provision.
The heart of the matter in terms of COOL boils down to two things in my analysis and opinion. Those two things are: consumers’ (and the domestic agriculture industry’s) right to know where our food comes from vs. the globalist perspective that international trade is too important to endanger by demanding logical consumer and industry protections.
I come down on the consumer right to know side when it comes to being able to know where our food comes from, which as a result puts me in agreement with R-CALF, even though I am a firm supporter of NAFTA and global agricultural trade.
The fact of the matter though as I see it is that if a nation doesn’t want its food products labeled as to the country of origin it’s because such nations — Mexico and China come to mind — have something to hide in terms of their food safety and overall quality control process.
The old saying about being proud enough of your work – or product – to sign it comes into play here. If you don’t want your name – or country – on a product there’s obviously a reason why not — and in most cases the reason isn’t a positive one.
U.S. farmers and food processors, including the cattle and beef industries, work under much more stringent food safety regulations and requirements than is the case in countries like Mexico. Therefore in my view commodities and products coming from countries with less stringent regulations should be labeled at retail as to the country of origin.
As a related aside, I’m sure you’ve noticed that many countries — Italy with pasta, France with cheese, and Germany with wine are just three of numerous examples — proudly label their food products with country of origin. Mexico also does it in some cases, such as with its popular Avocados From Mexico branding campaign.
The fact is there’s really no meat in the sandwich when it comes to the argument that country of origin labeling is unfair. Consumers have the right to know if the New York Strip or Round Steak in the grocery store meat case is from cattle raised in Mexico or Brazil rather than the U.S. Right now, unless grocers do the labeling themselves voluntarily the consumer is in the dark.
When Congress repealed COOL in 2015 it was because the World Trade Organization had ruled Canada and Mexico could begin imposing more than one billion dollars in tariffs to U.S products. This was threatened as a punishment for harming their markets because of the labeling requirements.
It’s time for Congress and the Trump Administration to reverse this decision and open up talks on reinstating COOL. We don’t need a global trade war. But we do need to reinstate consumer choice via being informed, along with leveling the playing field for U.S. food producers and processors.
American consumers are demanding and getting increased transparency from U.S. producers and food companies. At the same time some countries are exporting inferior quality commodities and foods into the U.S. without having to sign their name on it. That’s unfair. It’s also unsafe.
It’s time to reinstate COOL and once again require retailers to put country of origin stickers on the applicable foods.
We’ve tried “buyer beware” in America before. It didn’t work. We shouldn’t be allowing other countries to bring it back in our nation’s grocery stores.
By Victor Martino
Victor Martino: Ag Expo Magazine columnist and contributing editor Victor Martino is founder and president of San Francisco and Modesto-based Third Wave Strategies, a strategic marketing, business development and innovation firm, specializing in the food, agribusiness and grocery industries. Contact Martino at: victormartino415@gmailmcom.
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