The United States is using the North American free-trade talks to pressure Canada to abandon efforts to curb consumption of unhealthy foods.

For the past two years, Health Canada has been working toward a mandatory labelling system for unhealthy foods – a system that would place warning labels on items high in sugar, sodium or saturated fat. Officials in Mexico, too, have discussed plans to strengthen labels on food.

But in the continuing NAFTA negotiations, the Americans have been urging its trading partners to walk away from these plans, according to sources.

The U.S. draft proposal includes a provision that would limit warnings or symbols that “inappropriately denotes that a hazard exists from consumption of the food or non-alcoholic beverage,” according to two sources who have viewed the confidential document.

This was excerpted from the 22 March 2018 edition of The Globe and Mail (subscription may be required).