Mexico weighs U.S. meat product sanctions after WTO ruling

Reuters ^ | May 22nd, 2015 | Reporting by Noe Torres; Writing by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein

[Mariner]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico said on Thursday it would decide within about 15 days what sanctions to impose on U.S. meat products if the U.S. Congress does not comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on labeling.

On Monday, the WTO ruled that U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) laws discriminated against imported meat from Mexico and Canada.

"We have our teams prepared and working, specialists in international law...in case the U.S. Congress doesn't comply," Enrique Martinez, Mexico's agriculture minister, said at a news conference.

"I think in some 15 days we will have a clearer idea," Martinez added, of "what the sanctions would be."

[Mariner]

Soon it will be against the law to know if your baby food came from China.

And you can think the GOP Senators for that.

Some are POTUS candidates and very popular on this forum.

[WakeUpAndVote]

What are they going to do, invade us? Oh, wait......

[Wolfie]

US food corps are suing to restrict new Mexican food labeling laws too. Its a tidy system.

[Mollypitcher1]

Find your local farmers and ranchers and support them, not the Walmarts! Local fresh markets are spreading like wildfire. If there is anything that makes me livid is to find ONLY California or Mexican produce on the market shelves when I live in Florida. This especially is madness when it comes to oranges!

[maine-iac7]

FOOD:

Buy local

Grow your own

It’s the only way you’re ever going to know what you’re eating.

And for those of you who whine: “But I can’t”; “but I live in the city”:”But I can’t leave my job and move”.... but but -

Jelly-spine. You chained and shackled in situ?

Priorities.

[vette6387]

“If there is anything that makes me livid is to find ONLY California or Mexican produce on the market “

I'm a Californian and we are awash in $hit from Mexico as well as “seafood” from Southeast Asia. You really have to watch the “fresh stuff” you get at the big box stores. Then according to some ditz in the NY Slimes, you need to stop eating the stuff we produce for the country because it's making the drought “worse!” This WTO “ruling” on meat labeling is really bad, because Mexico is this Continent’s China when it comes to foisting off on the rest of the world foodstuffs that are not certain to be edible.

[rockinqsranch]

Yup. Mexico IS the Salmonella capitol of the this hemisphere.

[Mariner]

What's IMPORTANT here is that it will soon be illegal to LABEL food as to it's country of origin.

As a result of Trade agreements that nobody told you cede American sovereignty to international bodies.

NAFTA and TPP and others are simply a ruse. There is no such thing as "free trade". Not in this world.

But the US pretends there is, and there are millions of Republicans that believe in it, because their heroes extol the virtues of it.

All lies.

Nobody else in the world will EVER play fair. But the demand we do.

I'm calling BS on that.

[Mollypitcher1]

This WTO “ruling” on meat labeling is really bad, because Mexico is this Continent’s China ...

Agreed. I will NOT purchase meat from Mexico although I see it on the shelves all the time.

I support every return I see to LOCAL farming and like my fruits and vegs “Fresh” and vine ripe, not gassed , stored, and trucked thousands of miles when the same thing is grown a few miles from me. But then, I remember the “Fish Monger” who pushed his cart through town when I was young with fish fresh from the boats in our harbor, and the farmers who sold fresh corn, tomatoes and other vegs on the street corners of town. In some things, the good old days truly WERE the good old days.

[vette6387]

“Agreed. I will NOT purchase meat from Mexico although I see it on the shelves all the time.”

Then you need to not shop at Costco or Walmart because these people will sell you crap if they can make a buck off of it. Once the labeling goes, it will be “open season” on the consumer because the “elites” who run these mega businesses don’t have to eat what they sell, and by selling it to you, they enrich themselves. One of the things that went out the window in the “B” schools a long time ago are ethics and morality. Everything is directed toward “squeezing every nickel until the buffalo $hits.”
I was in a Home Depot a few weeks ago and despite the fact that the place had SIXTEEN CHECKOUT COUNTERS, only two were open despite the fact that there was a huge lineup of folks wanting to pay and leave. I spied the sign on the wall listing the manager’s phone number so I called him on my cell phone, and he did show up. I asked him why when it only took me ten minutes to select my purchases, that it should take a half an hour to get out of the store with them. HIs answer: “Atlanta determines the number of check stands that I am allowed to have open based on last year’s “historical data” for the same date. So if you wait until the clock strikes the next hour, I can open up another stand.”

[Mollypitcher1]

I don’t shop at Costco at all, and shop at Walmart only if forced to, but never for meats. It costs me a few extra pennies but I get what I am looking for elsewhere. I don’t know why people allow themselves to be herded like cows, treated like imbeciles, offered CHINA stuff instead of MADE IN AMERICA, just for the “privilege” to shop at the BIG BOX Stores. I won’t eat any Tyson Chicken..Gawd knows where it comes from...ONLY PERDUE for me and I’m just as strict about other things.