Reading Time: < 1 minute Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico has halted a bid to impose retaliatory trade measures on the U.S. over meat labeling rules after U.S. lawmakers repealed them this week, a Mexican government official said. Mexico had announced earlier this month it would start internal procedures to strip benefits from some U.S. agricultural and industrial imports, […] Read more
Mexico halts bid for COOL retaliation
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle rally limit-up before report
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures settled up by their three-cent/lb. price limit Friday, driven by short-covering and technical buying, traders said. Investors tweaked positions ahead of Friday’s U.S. Department of Agriculture monthly Cattle on Feed report at 2 p.m. CT. Spot December ended at 120.15 cents, and February 125.525 cents, […] Read more
U.S. Congress repeals COOL on beef, pork
Reading Time: 3 minutes The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have both approved a repeal of the government’s six-year old mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) laws on beef and pork. Tucked into an omnibus appropriations bill put before Congress Friday, the repeal shuts the door on a major irritant in North American trade relations and is expected to curb […] Read more
Canada not yet pulling trade trigger on COOL
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada remains “cautiously optimistic” that the U.S. government will repeal its country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law before the Canadian and Mexican governments impose retaliatory tariffs. Federal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, speaking Wednesday from Nairobi on a conference call with reporters, said she was “not going to go into hypotheticals” about Canada’s next move if an omnibus […] Read more
Clock ticking to avoid North American food fight
Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters –– The North American spat pitting Canada and Mexico against the U.S. over meat labels has sown confusion among producers and shippers in all three countries, with a trade war potentially just weeks away. The World Trade Organization on Monday authorized Canada and Mexico, the biggest markets for exported U.S. goods, to […] Read more
Trudeau says prefers to avoid COOL retaliation on U.S.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters –– Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday he would prefer not to apply sanctions against the U.S. over a meat labeling dispute, but at the same time warned that he would stand up for Canada’s farmers. Earlier this week, the World Trade Organization authorized an annual retaliation level of $1.055 billion for […] Read more
U.S. livestock: COOL news weighs on CME live cattle, hogs
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures fell on Monday, partly led by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ruling against the U.S. in a meat-labeling dispute, said traders. Canada and Mexico may impose tariffs worth $1 billion onto U.S.-traded products, a WTO panel ruled on Monday, as the countries prepared to retaliate […] Read more
WTO dials back Canada’s COOL retaliation
Reading Time: 4 minutes Canada will be able to take only about a third of the revenge it asked the World Trade Organization to authorize over the United States’ country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law. An arbitration panel of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) ruled Monday that Canada and Mexico may now ask the DSB to authorize annual retaliatory tariffs, […] Read more
CME to revamp cattle delivery rules before COOL vote
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — CME Group plans changes to its rules for live cattle futures, requiring that all cattle delivered against the contract must be born and raised solely in the U.S., the exchange said in a statement Friday. The new requirement, effective Dec. 18, covers all currently listed trading months through April 2017. CME […] Read more
MacAulay favours TPP deal, poised for trade fight with U.S.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters –– Canada’s new agriculture minister said Tuesday he likely will support the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiated by the previous government, and is inclined to retaliate against the U.S. over a long-standing meat-labeling dispute. The Liberal government, elected last month, has not taken a firm position yet on whether it will support TPP, which […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
