By François Biber

Sask. producers say COOL needs to go

May 19, 2015 | 2:43 PM

Saskatchewan cattle producers say enough is enough when it comes to country of origin labelling, widely known as COOL.

“Back in 2007-2008 we were opening borders back up to provide relief to the industry, and instead they brought COOL, and that made things worse,” said producer Les Johnson with Nisku Land and Cattle Inc. “It put added pressure on us, we had a very tough market coming off the BSE, and COOL just added to that.”

After the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled against the U.S.’s third appeal to keep COOL laws intact, Johnson said the only thing he can do is wait and see what the Canadian government does now.

“We have spent thousands of dollars in lawyer fees (through the Canadian Cattleman’s Association) fighting this. We have taken millions which could’ve been used for research and we’ve wasted money on this,” Johnson said.

When the U.S. enacted COOL laws in 2009 – it meant Canadian beef could no longer be mixed with American beef. Rather, Canadian cattle had to be segregated, slaughtered on a different day and packaged separately meaning more man hours and more reasons for packing plants to not take in more Canadian beef.

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“It’s all redundant because our beef sectors are so tight and we’re North American managed and it’s a tariff on our trade barrier,” Johnson said. “We have a really good product here and I think they were fearful of that fact that with all the branding, they were nervous we would take over some of the premium market share over the U.S. so marketers were looking to keep U.S. beef ahead.”

Experts say they expect the Canadian government to hit U.S. imports with higher tariffs on things like jewelry. Sources say Congress is already in the process of repealing COOL legislation.

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On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by François Biber

Sask. producers say COOL needs to go

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