Farmscape for October 23, 2014

A past chair of the Canadian Pork Council is calling on the U.S. government to respect its obligations under free trade agreements as it expects other nations to respect their commitments.
Since its introduction in 2009 U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling has forced American meat packers to segregate imported from domestically produced livestock, inhibiting their ability to utilize imported livestock.
Earlier this week the World Trade Organization ruled changes made in 2013 to fix the legislation increased the discrimination against imported livestock and failed to bring the United States into compliance with its international trade obligations.
Jurgen Preugschas, a past chair of the Canadian Pork Council, says the law has hurt Canadian and Mexican pork and beef producers and has also prompted the closure of U.S. pork and beef processing plants costing American jobs.

Clip-Jurgen Preugschas-Canadian Pork Council:
What we want is the need for segregation to stop.
That's what the whole problem has been and so how ever they solve the problem works for us.
They need to remove the necessity of segregation in the packing facilities.
That is number one and we feel it has to be done with a legislated solution.
We don't see any other solution so the sooner they can get that done the happier we are.
We are hopeful that they will finally understand what they have done and fulfill their obligation to free trade that they keep talking about in free trade deals that everyone else has to adhere to and I think it's high time that they adhere to it as well.

The U.S. has one final opportunity to appeal and if it loses that appeal Canada and Mexico will have the authority to apply to impose retaliatory tariffs on a wide range of imported U.S. products.
Preugschas says, if that happens, other U.S. industries will be affected putting even more American jobs at risk.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council