The U.S., as previously predicted, has rejected Canada’s request for a dispute settlement panel at the World Trade Organization to hear Ottawa’s complaint on country-of-origin labelling (COOL), according to the Reuters news service.
WTO rules allow members one opportunity to postpone such a request. Canada had filed its request with the intent of bringing it to last Friday’s (Oct. 23) scheduled meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body.
Both Canada and Mexico first brought complaints about COOL to the WTO last year, but had put those requests on hold when it appeared that COOL legislation, as brought forward near the end of the Bush administration, would not be as burdensome as feared on U.S. processors.
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Canada re-filed its request earlier this month after the Obama administration announced it would hold U.S. processors to a less flexible interpretation of COOL on their products.
Reuters noted Friday that the recent requests from Canada and Mexico are now expected to be bumped ahead to the Dispute Settlement Body’s next meeting on Nov. 19 — and the U.S. will not be able to block them again.
Canada’s Wayne Easter, the opposition ag critic for the federal Liberals, had earlier this month urged the Conservative government to move fast on filing with the Dispute Settlement Body. Easter had warned that Washington would likely exercise its right to bump Ottawa’s request to November.
