The National Farmers Union is pleased the U.S. Trade Representative is moving ahead with appealing the WTO ruling on the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling law. NFU Vice President of Programs Chandler Goule says each step the U.S. has taken to improve COOL has lessened what’s out of compliance with the labeling regulation.
Goule says earlier the WTO asked that the U.S. and Canada not file any appeals right away due to their backlog of appeals cases. He says Canada moved forward anyway forcing the U.S. to go ahead with their appeal as well.
He says the whole process will take a long time before anything is settled. He says the first hearing on the appeal will be sometime in January and then a number of other steps will need to be taken.
Goule also says he doesn’t think the WTO will ever get to a round of discussions involving retaliation which the anti COOL groups fear the most.