‘COOL is on life support’ – Gerry Ritz

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Comments

When Ritz complained that the Taylor study "cobbled together a bunch of numbers in a narrow-cast type of way", he completely ignored that this "cobbling together a bunch of numbers in a narrow-cast type of way" is exactly what supply management has been doing, and getting away with for forty years, to the continuing dismay of the US.

In addition, Ritz can't seem to grasp the idea that Congress, rightly, wrongly or otherwise, is simply reflecting the views of US voters who continually tell pollsters that they like to know:

(A) if their milk is BST-free,
(B)if their other foods are GMO-free,
(C)and, thanks to COOL, be able to know where their meat is coming from.

And, really, who could blame US consumers or Congress for balking at relaxing COOL? - at US meat counters, shoppers can, and do, choose meats which say "Born in the US, raised in the US, harvested in the US", or meats which say "Born in Canada, raised in the US, harvested in the US".

Furthermore, Ritz would appear to be in the midst of his own "last-gasp attempt" because is trying to persuade a country gearing up for a federal election in 2016 to give up something US voters seem to want, in return for getting nothing from us - a bargaining position every Kindergarten student learns to avoid but which, apparently, Ritz has yet to learn.

Finally, given that we are so-intransigent about our own protectionist sins, is there any wonder why delegates to Ontario Pork's 2013 annual general meeting voted 68 - 13 to "urge government to place trade ahead of protectionism"?

Sigh!

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

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