The chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board is applauding the federal government's commitment to move forward with retaliatory tariffs if the United States fails to repeal Mandatory County of Origin Labelling.
Earlier this month the World Trade Organization authorized Canada and Mexico to move ahead with the imposition of over $1,000,000,000 in retaliatory tariffs on products imported from the U.S. in response to Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling and the government of Canada has reaffirmed its intent to proceed with those tariffs if the U.S. fails to repeal provisions of the labelling law pertaining to pork and beef.
Sask Pork chair Florian Possberg notes, in response to the original complaint and subsequent appeals, the WTO has ruled four times that M-COOL is illegal, this latest decision now clears the way for Canada and Mexico to move forward with tariffs and he applauds the stand being taken by prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Florian Possberg-Pork Development Board:
We do have a new government in Ottawa and it's very gratifying for us as farmers that the new government is going to support the trade rules and laws that we're trying to establish both in North America and globally.
It sends a very strong message that this government is going to support Canada's ability to trade with our biggest neighbor to the south of us.
It's encouraging because we think they're going to be strong proponents of all trade deals which, quite frankly, is good for our agriculture particularly here in western Canada because we depend so much on trade with the global community.
Possberg notes quite a number of U.S. processors find Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling so restrictive that they will not buy Canadian born hogs, that restricts the number of markets open to our animals and suppresses our price.
He says pork producers believe the repeal of Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling will reestablish fair trade between Canada and the United States.
Source: Farmscape