The following is excerpted from today’s article by Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg LLP.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service has issued a final rule revising the country of origin labeling regulations for muscle cut covered commodities to provide consumers with more specific information. This rule is effective as of May 23 and applies to covered muscle cut commodities produced or packaged on or after that date, although the AMS plans to focus on industry education and outreach for the first six months.
The 2008 Farm Bill revised the previous mandatory COOL requirements to provide that in order for a commodity to be labeled as a product of the U.S. all production activities associated with the commodity have to occur on U.S. soil or in U.S. waters. For products produced in the integrated North American marketplace, the label must indicate every country in which a stage of production has taken place. The 2008 Farm Bill also imposed mandatory COOL requirements for muscle cuts of beef (including veal), lamb, chicken, goat and pork; ground beef, lamb, chicken, goat and pork; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; perishable agricultural commodities; macadamia nuts; pecans; ginseng; and peanuts.
The WTO found that these requirements were inconsistent with U.S. obligations under the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade to accord imported products treatment no less favorable than that accorded to domestic products…
This article is available at: http://www.strtrade.com/publications-meat-labeling-wto-052413.html.