Following its passage, Canadian officials praised the U.S. spending bill that included a repeal of mandatory meat country-of-origin labeling. The repeal averted a potential trade war, according to Canadian Manufacturing, a Canadian industry based news source, as the bill avoids $1 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs Canada and Mexico were authorized to impose on the United States. A Canadian trade official called the repeal of COOL “a real vindication of the power and significance of the WTO dispute-resolution mechanism.” Canadian officials said they still planned to obtain formal approval this week from the WTO for retaliation, even though the tariffs won’t be imposed. Following the passage of the bill, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said “effective immediately, USDA is not enforcing the COOL requirements.” The tariffs targeted U.S. products including not only agricultural ones such as cattle, pork, apples, rice, maple syrup and wine, but extended to non-agricultural products, such as jewelry, office chairs, wooden furniture and mattresses.
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