A Federal District Court in Washington State has ruled in favor of the USDA over a lawsuit filed against it by R—CALF USA and the Cattle Producers of Washington. The cattle groups alleged in their lawsuit that USDA unlawfully allowed imported beef to be sold to consumers without a country of origin label. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard said while USDA won the summary judgement the court also ruled cattle producers were financially injured by a lack of a having a COOL law in place.

Bullard says the court favored the USDA because the cattle groups didn’t file their case in time.

He says neither R-CALF nor the Cattle Producers of Washington were in existence in 1995 so they were unable to file their court action at that time. Bullard also says their next step will be to ask President Trump to reinstate Country of Origin Lableling.

Bullard says the President could immediately reinstate COOL in his ongoing renegotiation of NAFTA or by beginning a rulemaking within the USDA to require the labeling law.