Posted on 06/11/2015 4:27:10 PM PDT by Diogenesis
House votes to repeal country-of-origin labeling on meat
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under threat of trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico,
the House has voted to to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels
on packages of beef, pork and poultry.
The World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal last month,
ruling the labels that say where animals were born, raised and
slaughtered are discriminatory against the two U.S. border countries.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it's up to Congress
to change the law to avoid retaliation from the two countries.
The law was initially written at the behest of northern U.S. ranchers
who compete with the Canadian cattle industry. It also was backed by
consumer advocates who say it helps shoppers know where their food comes from.
Supporters have called on the U.S. government to negotiate with Canada and
Mexico to find labels acceptable to all countries.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said repeal would be premature, adding,
"Our people deserve a right to know where their food is produced
and where it comes from." ...
Canada and Mexico have opposed the labeling because it causes their animals
to be segregated from those of U.S. origin — a costly process that has led
some U.S. companies to stop buying exports.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Insanity
“Lesser evil” did what for us again??
That's racist. Mad cow for everyone!
They really didn’t have much choice. We’ve already lost this in a trade dispute at the highest level. We can keep the law, but doing so would require us to pay huge retaliatory fines.
Sick of buying my salmon from Chile. What....Alaska doesn’t have salmon any more?
WTO is essentially saying that rather than raise the quality of their offering so that consumers trust their country of origin, every country should be producing at the lowest common denominator.
So much for competition improving quality.
But it in any case, this was not the fault of House Republicans.
Wasn't that many decades ago that the US told the rest of the world what to do.
“........D-Ohio, said repeal would be premature”.
I shocked that any D would make such a simple,...”common sense”: statement
I cant imagine buying any “grown” in Mexico meat
Im certain that they’re fastidiously cleanly down there though/
Treaties and Trade agreements have consequences. They are contracts. If you break the contract the other parties can sue you in international court. Now we will have no clue where our meat is coming from. We are going to buy beef from a local rancher. If we don’t know where its from it can sit and rot in the cooler at Costco.
The is TPP is going to be NAFTA on steroids. Time to get out the pitchforks.
This is what always happens when forced to negotiate from a position of weakness.No different than the Iran nuke deal.
I often come away from the supermarket without tomatoes. I refuse to eat anything grown in Mexico, but most tomatoes are from there.
Yep, and no flavor.
What exactly would happen if the U.S. decided to look out for its citizens and not pay the WTO fines?
What happens if the U.S. says they won’t submit to an international court? Is the world going to declare war on us or impose sanctions? No.
Sure they do....at $15 a pound. The big thing now is wild and farm raised.
Freepers need to start thinking, shopping and living LOCALLY. These b@stards ARE out to kill us - BOTH parties are! Grrr!
Click the link below, put in your zip code, and you will find many local farmers MORE than willing to feed you!
I feel BLESSED to live in a state where you can’t swing a dead cat without finding someone to provide locally-grown, humanely raised, healthy food. Animals and vegetables. Eggs, milk and cheese.
Hopefully, you can find a local provider, too!
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
P.S. Our steer this season is named, ‘Supper.’ Last years’ was, ‘Dinner.’ ;)
“Buy American” is now IMPOSSIBLE.
No matter what country they were grown in, they were planted, cultivated, picked and processed by Mexicans.
Well the reason the Congress voted to ban meat labeling is the threat of Mexico and Canada to sue us so I have assume they can do it. We signed a contract. The WTO is threatening us. Trade agreements have consequences.
Time to visit the local butcher, I mean a REAL butcher. Buy a freezer full if you can.
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