On the recordJune 10, 2015
I want to thank you and your committee for your hard work on this most important legislation. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer my support to the passage of H.R. 2393, the Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015. This important legislation repeals country of origin labeling requirements for muscle cuts of beef and pork. Unfortunately, the World Trade Organization issued the final judgment of a long-running case brought by Canada, ending all doubt that COOL violates U.S. trade obligations. Now, America's two largest export markets, Canada and Mexico, are moving to institute retaliatory duties against U.S. products, including $1.3 billion of products from Iowa. Canada has published their list of retaliatory targets, including those aforementioned meat cuts, but also corn, fructose, cereals from my district, along with products from districts all across the United States. Mexico has not yet published their list, but is likely to include some of the same corn-based products and perhaps even include ethanal. It is critically important that COOL requirements be repealed to comply with existing trade obligations as soon as possible. Implementations of these tariffs would negatively affect a great deal of farmers and processors in my district and across Iowa. I urge the House to pass this legislation today and the Senate to act swiftly to avoid these potentially devastating economic consequences.
