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Johnson urges COOL appeal

South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson, one of the original authors of the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law, is urging the administration to appeal the recent World Trade Organization ruling that he says undermines the COOL program.

Johnson, along with Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, have written to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.

They say the WTO panel overestimated the impact COOL has had on imports from Canada and Mexico. Their letter says “the decline in livestock imports were more the result of the economic downturn and a dramatic change in the currency exchange rates than to the application of COOL labels.” And they say the October WTO ruling “underestimates the value (of COOL) to consumers.”

Johnson worked to keep the COOL program in the 2014 Farm Bill.