Yesterday the WTO arbitrator ruled that Canada can impose retaliatory surtaxes on $1.054 billion of U.S. exports to Canada in response to the U.S. non-compliance with Country-of-Origin-Labelling (COOL).
Here is the link to the statement from the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade, and the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food on the WTO ruling: http://www.international.gc.ca/media/comm/news-communiques/2015/12/07a.aspx?lang=eng
As a response to the dispute, the Canadian government will be looking into imposing a 100% surtax on select imported U.S. food ingredients and products. This could be harmful to some Canadian food processors. The statement also says “If the U.S. Senate does not take immediate action to repeal COOL for beef and pork, Canada will quickly take steps to retaliate.”
