AMS Proposes Revised COOL Requirements for Muscle Cuts to Implement WTO Ruling
The Agricultural Marketing Service proposed revised Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements for muscle cut covered commodities, which would align labeling requirements for muscle cut meats wholly produced in the U.S. with current requirements for foreign beef. The proposed rule comes after the World Trade Organization held in July 2012 that current COOL requirements discriminate against cattle and hogs imported from Canada and Mexico. Comments on the proposed rule are due by April 11.
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Currently, muscle cuts of beef (including veal), lamb, chicken, goat and pork that are derived from animals born, raised, and slaughtered in the U.S. may be marked “Product of the United States.” But for muscle cuts from animals slaughtered in the U.S. but produced in multiple countries, the country where each production step took place (i.e., birth, raising, and slaughter) must be identified.
The proposed rule would harmonize requirements for U.S. and foreign-produced muscle cuts by changing the designation for wholly-U.S. products to “born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States.”
The proposed rule would also eliminate an exception to identification of each product step for animals born in a foreign country and raised and slaughtered in the U.S. Currently, such muscle cuts may be labeled “Product of United States and Country X,” but under the proposed rule these muscle cuts would have to be labeled as “Born in Country X, Raised and Slaughtered in the U.S.”
Labeling of Imported Commodities Clarified
The proposed rule would maintain the current requirement that imported commodities will retain their origin, as declared to CBP at the time the product enters the U.S., through retail sale. The proposed rule would add a provision that says muscle cuts from animals slaughtered in a foreign country, including animals born and/or raised in the U.S. but slaughtered in a foreign country, should be labeled as “Product of Country X.” It would also clarify that the origin declaration for imported muscle cuts may include more specific location information (i.e., identification of production steps instead of product of a country) if records are maintained to substantiate the claim.
(See notice for all details of proposed labeling changes, including the proposed elimination of the allowance for comingling muscle cuts of different origins, proposed finer disaggregation of production steps and origins in various circumstances, proposed definition of retailer as any person subject to be licensed as a retailer under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, etc.)
(See ITT’s Online Archives 12070208 for summary of the adverse WTO ruling.)
An AMS press release on the proposed rule is available here.
The AMS COOL webpage is available here.