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US not complying with meat labelling ruling

Geneva - The United States has not done enough to change its meat labelling rules after losing a World Trade Organization challenge brought by Mexico and Canada, the WTO said on Monday.

The WTO ruled in June 2012 that the US meat labelling programme, known as COOL, unfairly discriminated against Canada and Mexico because it gave less favourable treatment to beef and pork imported from those countries than to U.S. meat.

The United States said it had met a deadline to change its rules, but Canada and Mexico said it had not done enough, a claim that was at least partially upheld by the ruling published on Monday.

The US law, which requires retailers such as grocery stores to list the country of origin on meat, has resulted in fewer Canadian pigs and cattle being exported to the US since 2009, according to the Canadian government.

The WTO said the revised US labelling rules treated Mexican and Canadian livestock exports less favourably than US livestock, which is illegal according to WTO rules.

Under a timetable agreed by the three countries involved, any of them can appeal against the latest ruling within 20 days.

Unless the the revised US labelling rules are given the all-clear by the WTO's Appellate Body, Mexico and Canada can ask the trade body to let them impose a certain amount of trade sanctions on the United States. The United States can challenge the amount.

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