Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this measure to repeal the country of origin labeling.
I want to thank the chairman for bringing this measure up. I also want to thank the ranking member always for his efforts to be balanced and to try to solve problems.
But I have been saying--and he and I disagree on this measure--for years that this country of origin labeling has simply not worked. So I am pleased that we are here today to debate the legislation that, in fact, repeals the country of origin labeling for beef, pork, and chicken products. Hopefully we can move on to figure out a solution to this problem.
That said, let's be clear: I want to emphasize, this measure has nothing to do with food safety. Let me repeat. It has nothing to do with food safety. The inspection process by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration remains in place for all consumable products that the American public eats.
So what this has to do with is simply about how we market beef, pork, or chicken across the country.
Going further, to ensure that we act on this measure, we do not want to have to deal with a devastating blow to our economy through economic retaliation.
Last month, as has been noted by my colleagues, the World Trade Organization rejected the United States appeal. This was our last and final appeal. And for many of us, we felt it was predictable.
We now face harsh trade retaliations from two of our largest export markets, Canada and Mexico, against products that are produced in America. This especially impacts California, the number one agricultural State in the Nation. The Canadian Government has already published its list of commodities that will be subject to tariff increases and estimates the impact could reach in excess of $3 million, with the direct effect in California being over $1 billion.
This is real. They prepared the list, and it could be implemented as early as this fall.
For example, Canada imports 90 percent of its table wine from my home State of California. If the tariff is increased to 100 percent, that will mean customers in Canada will have to pay double for a bottle of good California wine. If consumers in Canada see that price double, I suspect they are going to buy their wine elsewhere.
This will be detrimental to U.S. trade, as an example, but to all products that are produced in America.
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Mr. COSTA. The bottom line is, we don't want to see any retaliatory efforts made by Canada and Mexico, and I don't think they want to impose them.
This bill is our only option right now to satisfy the WTO compliance. In addition, as has been noted, the Secretary of Agriculture has stated a legislative fix is required to resolve this problem.
So I urge my colleagues to vote for this measure, and let's take action. And the Senate will need to then act, and then we have a chance to come together and fix this legislation.
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