U.S. cattle ranchers are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, demanding that meat produced in other countries be labelled, reported the Associated Press.
The June 19 lawsuit says the U.S. Meat Inspection Act requires meat from other countries be clearly marked.
The World Trade Organization has ruled four times that country-of-origin labeling (COOL) discriminates against Canadian cattle and hogs and violates the trade obligations of the U.S.. The WTO also ruled in 2015 that Canada and Mexico could impose more than $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs if the U.S. did not cancel COOL. The law was repealed in December, 2015.
Since then, imported meat can be sold as U.S. meat, stateside ranchers say. COOL had been in effect from 2009 to 2016.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has previously estimated damages caused by COOL to Canada to be just over $3 billion annually.
