“It is very important, very vital, and very urgent that we hear the perspectives from the CEOs at these companies and get the full picture of why prices have gone up for consumers and down for ranchers,” Scott, a Democrat from Georgia, said in a statement.

“In addition to this panel of CEOs, we will be convening a panel of ranchers to hear what consolidation in the beef industry has done to their bottom lines and viability,” he added.

Increased prices and profits for meatpacking companies have threatened to amplify Washington’s scrutiny of the U.S. meatpacking industry, as the Biden administration has criticized a lack of competition in the sector.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan in January for new rules to bolster competition and stop “exploitation” in the sector amid concerns that a small group of meat packers was capable of dictating beef, pork and poultry prices, adding to inflation pressures caused by rising labour and transportation costs and by COVID 19-related supply constraints.

In January, the chairman of the House of Representatives subcommittee on economic and consumer policy sent a letter to major U.S. meat processing companies, seeking information on rising prices and profits.

— Reporting for Reuters by Kanishka Singh in Washington, D.C.

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Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican from Texas, and Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, on Wednesday introduced H.R. 7291, proposing to restore the word “beef” into existing labeling law under the U.S. Agricultural Marketing Act.

The bill, if passed and enacted, would give U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack up to 180 days to “determine a means of reinstating” mandatory COOL for beef in a way that’s “in compliance with all applicable rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).”

Tai and Vilsack would have up to a year from the date when the bill is enacted to “implement the means” to do so.

“American cattle ranchers are being undercut by foreign competition because current labeling standards allow imported beef to be marked as made in the United States if it is only packaged here,” Gooden said in a release Wednesday. “Our trade policies should promote American-made beef and put the hard-working cattle ranchers in the United States first.”

“It is critical that American consumers are able to make informed decisions about the meat they buy,” Khanna said in the same release. “Consumers should be able to know that they are truly supporting American farmers and ranchers from labels at the store.”

Groups including the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association and R-CALF USA also stated their support for the bill in Gooden’s release on Wednesday.

After its introduction Wednesday in the House of Representatives, the bill was referred to both the House agriculture committee and the House Ways and Means committee.

A nearly identical bipartisan bill, S. 2716, was introduced last fall in the U.S. Senate by Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, and Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, among others.

That bill was introduced Sept. 13, read twice and referred that day to the Senate committee on agriculture, nutrition, and forestry and has yet to return.

Both of the bills specify restoring COOL for beef must be WTO-compliant, because beef was pulled from the relevant labeling legislation in 2015 after the WTO ruled that COOL violated the United States’ international trade obligations.

COOL was first developed during the Clinton administration, passed near the end of the George W. Bush administration in 2008 and implemented during the Obama administration in 2009. It imposed mandatory origin labels for beef, pork, lamb, chicken and goat meat and certain other perishable commodities where sold at retail in the U.S.

Canada and Mexico responded by challenging COOL at the WTO and in U.S. courts, because the COOL rules — as applied by Vilsack as the Obama administration’s ag secretary — called for U.S. processors of meat from imported animals to provide labels that detailed where the specific animals involved in a given package of meat were born, raised and slaughtered.

The costs involved in segregating animals and production lines to follow that label law prompted some U.S. packers and processors to restrict or halt their imports or cut the prices they paid for Canadian cattle and hogs. Some estimates pegged Canadian cattle and hog producers’ losses to reduced prices and lost sales at over $8 billion.

After the WTO’s 2015 ruling against COOL, the Obama administration repealed the label rules on beef and pork rather than face retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico on U.S. goods.

Since then, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, language has also been included in the 2020 Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to require that each party ensures any regulations on labeling “accord treatment no less favourable than that accorded to like goods of national origin.”

Any rules on labeling that any of the CUSMA free trade bloc members impose in the future also must “not create unnecessary obstacles to trade between the parties.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act floated by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, finance chairman Ron Wyden and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, would expunge federal non-violent marijuana crimes, further medical research and allow cannabis companies access to essential financial services.

While adult use of cannabis is legal in 18 states, and allowed medically in 37 states, it remains illegal under U.S. federal law, deterring banks and others from dealing with companies that sell marijuana or related products.

The draft set the minimum age required to buy cannabis at 21 and limited retail sales transactions at the state level to 10 ounces of cannabis at a time or the equivalent amount of any cannabis derivative.

The draft also states that a new definition of cannabis would be established and proposes moving cannabis oversight to the Food and Drug Administration and regulators that overlook alcohol and tobacco, away from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

States will control the possession, production, or distribution of cannabis, the draft says, while shipping marijuana into states that have not legalized it will be prohibited. However, such states can not stop shipments going to other legalized regions through their borders.

Senator Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said “This new bill puts the cart before the horse.” He added that marijuana use needs more research.

A final legislative draft will be introduced later and feedback on the discussion draft can be provided until Sept. 1.

To become a law, the measure will have to pass both the Democratic-controlled Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by President Joe Biden.

“It is hard to see how this can pass, but nonetheless it is positive to see progress and momentum,” said Greg Heyman, founder of cannabis investment firm Beehouse Partners.

A major cannabis banking reform bill that was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in April has failed to make any progress in the Senate.

“Our main concern over this current legislation (Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act) is around the ability to get it passed in the Senate,” private equity firm Poseidon managing director Michael Boniello said, adding it may hinder other federal cannabis reforms, including the banking act, from being passed in 2021.

— Reporting for Reuters by Arathy S Nair in Bangalore.

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The legislation, seen by Reuters, would impose a tax incentive of up to US$2 for every gallon produced of sustainable aviation fuel, which can be made from feedstocks such as grease, animal fats and plant oils. That price would make it one of the most expensive subsidies for clean fuel.

The United States uses about 45 million gallons per day of jet fuel, or about six per cent of total petroleum use, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

U.S. Representatives Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois; Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Michigan; and Julia Brownley, a Democrat from California, are expected to introduce the bill.

Lawmakers have been pushing for measures to fight climate change as President Joe Biden’s administration has called for the U.S. economy to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, meaning removing as much carbon from the atmosphere as is emitted.

It was not immediately clear whether the sustainable aviation fuel bill would have Republican support. Schneider said on Thursday in a press conference that the representatives were working on building bipartisan support for the bill.

Republicans have opposed the administration’s climate policies, arguing they risk damaging the economy by hurting the drilling and mining industries.

Airlines and renewable fuel companies in recent months have been lobbying the federal government to support development of sustainable aviation fuel, saying this is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft.

Air travel contributes around two per cent of global emissions, according to the Air Transport Action Group, a coalition of aviation experts focused on sustainability issues.

Climate groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund, as well as industry groups like United Airlines and Airlines for America support the bill.

A coalition of more than 50 groups, including energy companies such as World Energy, Neste and LanzaJet, delivery companies FedEx and UPS, and airlines such as Delta, sent a letter on Thursday to the representatives, voicing their support for the bill.

“American has an ambitious goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and we see sustainable aviation fuel as the most promising way to make fuel-efficiency gains and reduce our emissions in the near term,” Jill Blickstein, American Airlines’ managing director of ESG, said in an email.

While U.S. sustainable aviation fuel use has risen in recent years, it remains a fraction of the larger traditional petroleum-based jet fuel market.

Producers of sustainable aviation fuel can earn the tax credit if the fuel achieves at least a 50 per cent lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reduction compared with petroleum-based jet fuel, according to the legislation.

The credit would expire at the end of 2031.

A coalition of trade groups representing pilots, flight attendants and other aviation industry personnel, sent a letter and documents on Tuesday to Congressional committee members that outlined ways to reduce carbon emissions. Solutions included the tax credit.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Shepardson in Washington and Stephanie Kelly in New York.

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Though Democrats retained control of the House and therefore will again chair the committee, Peterson’s exit could shift U.S. spending away from a region hammered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, they said.

Ruling parties take seniority into account when selecting committee chairs, providing an opening for senior House Democrats such as Reps. Jim Costa of California, David Scott of Georgia and Marcia Fudge of Ohio to lead the agriculture committee.

Midwest farmers raise pigs and grow the bulk of soybeans and corn in the U.S., while California is known for fruit and vegetable crops and southern states like Georgia produce chickens.

For Minnesotans, “the clout that he had on the ag committee is lost to us,” said Laura Lemke, executive director of the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association.

The House agriculture committee has jurisdiction over a vast range of agriculture and rural issues, including the Farm Bill, renewable energy, disaster assistance, nutrition and crop insurance. The latest Farm Bill, passed once every five years, expires in 2023 and mandates spending of about US$428 billion.

Discussion of the bill starts years in advance.

Former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat, said Peterson’s defeat was “devastating” because he understood intricacies of the legislation. He has long worked with Republicans, who will likely retain control of the Senate.

“Colin knew more about the Farm Bill than anyone else in Congress,” Heitkamp said.

Republican Michelle Fischbach beat Peterson and will seek a seat on the committee, her campaign said.

The next job for Peterson, age 76, could be at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and a former USDA chief economist.

“I would think that if Biden wins, Peterson would go right to the top of the list for USDA secretary,” Glauber said.

Peterson did not respond to requests for comment.

— Reporting for Reuters by PJ Huffstutter and Tom Polansek in Chicago.

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The new clause would, in theory, checkmate a move made last summer by some Democrat members of the U.S. House of Representatives to have a new North American free trade pact revive the COOL meat-labeling program the Obama administration halted in 2015.

The three countries signed off on revisions made to the 2018 CUSMA pact at a Dec. 10, 2019 ceremony in Mexico City. The House of Representatives on Dec. 19 passed the revised version of CUSMA by a 385-41 vote. The deal is now before the U.S. Senate for consideration.

The revised CUSMA, as passed in the House, does include several other changes that had been sought by the House’s Democrat majority in the year since the Trump administration reopened and secured changes to the 36-year-old NAFTA pact.

Mexico’s Senate has already approved the revised pact, which still must also pass Canada’s Parliament.

In a statement via email on Dec. 19, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada spokesperson said Ottawa “will continue to defend Canadian agricultural producers against any discriminatory labelling requirements that may contravene international trade obligations.”

That said, the AAFC spokesperson also noted the new CUSMA pact as approved by the House of Representatives “contains language that prohibits discriminatory labelling requirements.”

The revised pact’s text requires each party to the CUSMA deal to ensure regulations on labels “accord treatment no less favourable than that accorded to like goods of national origin.”

Any rules on labeling that the CUSMA nations impose in the future also must “not create unnecessary obstacles to trade between the parties.”

The revised CUSMA pact specifies that the language on labeling is included “in order to avoid disrupting North American trade” and is in keeping with the three countries’ obligations on technical barriers to trade (TBT).

The chance of a COOL law turning up in CUSMA appeared last summer when a group of House Democrats — among them high-profile rookie members such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib , Conor Lamb and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — wrote jointly to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about CUSMA in June.

Their letter sought COOL’s revival as part of CUSMA, along with other changes to the pact’s labour, environment and pharmaceutical provisions.

Lost sales

COOL wasn’t part of the original NAFTA but was developed during the Clinton administration, passed near the end of the George W. Bush administration in 2008 and implemented during the Obama administration in 2009.

COOL imposed mandatory origin labels for beef, pork, lamb, chicken and goat meat and certain other perishable commodities where sold at retail in the U.S.

Canada and Mexico challenged COOL through U.S. courts and the World Trade Organization, because its rules, strictly applied, called for U.S. processors of meat from imported animals to provide labels that detailed where the specific animals involved were born, raised and slaughtered.

The costs involved in segregating animals and production lines to follow the label law prompted some U.S. packers and processors to restrict or halt their imports or cut the prices they paid for Canadian cattle and hogs.

Some estimates pegged Canadian cattle and hog producers’ losses to reduced prices and lost sales at over $8 billion.

After the WTO ruled in 2015 that COOL violated the United States’ international trade obligations, the Obama administration opted to repeal the label rules on beef and pork rather than face retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico on U.S. goods. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Democrats, who control the House, approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA) more than a year after President Donald Trump secured the deal with Mexico and Canada.

Voting against the measure were 38 Democrats, two Republicans and one independent.

Mexico’s Senate approved the revised version of CUSMA by a 107-1 vote on Dec. 12.

Canada has said it plans to move in tandem with the U.S. on ratification, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently said a ratification vote in the House of Commons may not happen until late January.

— Reporting for Reuters by Susan Heavey.

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Trudeau’s Liberal government said from the start it wanted to work in tandem with Washington to formally approve the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA), which was signed last year.

The United States, Mexico and Canada agreed last week to revised terms for CUSMA to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico has already ratified the deal and the U.S. House of Representatives will consider legislation on Thursday to implement the pact, a senior Democrat said. The House ways and means committee approved the revised pact by voice vote on Tuesday,

Canadian legislators, however, are not due back from a winter break until Jan. 27. The Liberals lost their majority in an October election and must work more closely with opposition parties to push through legislation.

“We might — because of our parliamentary calendar — be the last parties to ratify, so we’re going to have to try to get to it as quickly as we can,” Trudeau told Toronto’s Citytv.

Trudeau said he was reasonably confident his government would find enough votes to approve the treaty.

Eleanore Catenaro, a spokeswoman for Trudeau, said Ottawa still wanted to work with the United States as much as possible on ratification. She declined to say whether Trudeau might call lawmakers back to work ahead of schedule in January.

Canada’s two main opposition parties suggested last week they could move to delay ratification, accusing the Liberal government of botching revisions to the treaty.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren and David Lawder.

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The signing ceremony in Mexico City launched what may be the final approval effort for U.S. President Donald Trump’s three-year quest to revamp the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal he has blamed for the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

The event at the National Palace was attended by Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. White House adviser Jared Kushner.

The result of a rare show of bipartisan and cross-border co-operation in the Trump era of global trade conflicts, the deal was inked the same day as he became the fourth U.S. president in history to face formal impeachment.

Lighthizer called it “a miracle” that actors from across the political spectrum had come together, calling it a testament to the benefits of the deal. Lopez Obrador credited Trump for working with him, while Freeland celebrated a win for multilateralism.

“We have accomplished this together at a moment when, around the world, it is increasingly difficult to get trade deals done,” she said.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA) was signed more than a year ago to replace NAFTA, but Democrats controlling the U.S. House of Representatives insisted on major changes to labour and environmental enforcement before bringing it to a vote.

Delays, led primarily by Democrats and U.S. organized labour, at times threatened to scuttle the deal, creating investment uncertainty in all three countries and worrying U.S. farmers already suffering tariffs stemming from Trump’s trade war with China.

Intense negotiations over the past week among Democrats, the Trump administration and Mexico produced more stringent rules on labour rights aimed at reducing Mexico’s low-wage advantage, including verification of labour compliance at the factory level by independent labour experts.

“It is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a news conference, adding that CUSMA was now ready for a House vote.

Some Mexican business groups fear that Lopez Obrador and his chief negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Jesus Seade, have ceded too much, and call the labour verification a violation of Mexican sovereignty.

Seade himself, who signed the deal on Tuesday, said some of the changes were reasonable but not necessarily “good for Mexico.”

Next “they’ll cede the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,” said Gustavo Hoyos, president of employers federation Coparmex and a vocal Lopez Obrador critic, referring to a strategic region of Mexico. He called the government “a bad negotiator.”

Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers say there is broad support for revising the trade pact, which encompasses US$1.2 trillion in annual trade across the continent and supports 12 million U.S. jobs and a third of American agricultural exports, backers say.

U.S. House ways and means committee chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat, said sections of the text would be reviewed by lawmakers, but he saw no reason for “unnecessary delays” in bringing the trade pact to a vote on the House floor.

However, in a new wrinkle to swift ratification in the United States, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Republican-controlled Senate would not take up the deal before congressional recess, potentially pushing the vote into next year.

That seemed to put him at odds with Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, who said the White House would “push hard” to get the implementing bill passed before year-end.

Trump launched a renegotiation of NAFTA in his first year in office, intent on delivering on his 2016 campaign promise to replace what he has derided as the “worst deal ever.” Canadian and Mexican leaders reluctantly agreed to join the negotiations with their largest trading partner.

“America’s great USMCA Trade Bill is looking good. It will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “Importantly, we will finally end our Country’s worst Trade Deal, NAFTA!”

For Democrats, the deal serves as a retort to Trump’s and Republicans’ assertions that their only agenda was pursuing his impeachment.

In addition to the labour provisions, Democrats said they won elimination of a 10-year data exclusivity period for biologic drugs from the agreement, which they feared would lead to higher U.S. drug prices.

But Pelosi said she lost her bid to remove liability protections for internet service providers, a provision she had called a “giveaway” to big tech companies.

U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer included a last-minute demand of Mexico for a tighter definition of steel and aluminum in CUSMA’s automotive rules of origin to be “melted and poured” in North America. While CUSMA originally required 70 per cent of the metals used in North American vehicle production come from the region, it did not specify production methods, opening the door to the use of semi-finished metals from China and elsewhere.

Mexico and Canada agreed to a seven-year phase-in of the new standard for steel, industry sources familiar with the deal said. The aluminum demand was dropped, but with the caveat that it would be reconsidered in 10 years.

— Reporting for Reuters by Andrea Shalal and Sharay Angulo; additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Abraham Gonzalez and Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; writing by Dan Burns.

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Trudeau is to travel to Washington on Thursday to meet with President Donald Trump to discuss ratification of the new North American trade accord, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Mexico’s Senate is scheduled to take up the legislation in a full vote on Tuesday.

The Trump administration has been pushing Congress to speed up a vote on the agreement. But the House of Representatives has sought more time to review the deal, with Pelosi pressing for improved enforcement mechanisms for labour and environmental standards.

Republicans, who control the U.S. Senate, have been seeking a vote on the USMCA before the August recess to avoid budget debates and 2020 presidential campaign activity, which is expected to intensify in the autumn.

Pelosi controls the overall House legislative agenda, including trade measures, and many political experts see USMCA as unlikely to come to a vote in that chamber during the summer.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobby seeking quick passage of the accord, sees progress for the deal as feasible in the short term, despite concerns voiced by Democrats.

“We think the objective of securing a vote on USMCA in the House before the August recess is a reasonable goal,” the chamber’s senior vice-president for international policy, John Murphy, told reporters in a phone call Monday. “The gaps are bridgeable.”

He pointed to Pelosi’s move to appoint a number of House Democrats to a working group with officials at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to address their concerns as cause for cheer.

Trudeau’s meetings with congressional leaders were first reported by Politico. Trudeau’s meeting with Pelosi is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, a Pelosi aide said.

Canada’s government confirmed Trudeau will meet with U.S. House and Senate leaders on Thursday but provided no details.

— Reporting for Reuters by Richard Cowan and Alexandra Alper; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa; writing by Alexandra Alper.

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