Canada, Mexico defeat US in WTO meat ruling

Canada and Mexico won a trade case against a US law on meat labelling on Friday, in a move that may boost shipments of cattle and hogs to the United States. A World Trade Organisation dispute panel agreed with their complaint that mandatory US labelling laws were too stringent, giving US livestock an unfair advantage over imports from Mexico and Canada.
The panel said the US rules, called country of origin labelling, or COOL, violated WTO rules on technical barriers to trade. "When the United States implemented COOL, the impact on the Canadian and American livestock industry was immediately negative," Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said. "The WTO's final report marks a clear win for Canadian livestock producers."