Senators led by South Dakota’s John Thune and Mike Rounds will be introducing the American Beef Labeling Act next week. The measure calls for reinstating Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling. South Dakota Stock Grower’s Association Executive Director James Halverson says the bill’s been written to avoid any retaliatory tariffs and be compliant with WTO rules.

He says once the legislation is enacted, the U.S. Trade Representative and Ag Secretary have one year to get the WTO on board, should they not meet that deadline the bill would go into effect immediately.

Halverson says not having MCOOL in place has caused several costly problems for cattle producers in the United States.

Senator Thune says transparency in labeling benefits both producers and consumers and when one sees Product of the USA label on the grocery store shelf, it should mean just that.