Country Of Origin Labeling Repealed By U.S. House

Have you looked at the label on the beef that you buy? Is that U.S. beef? Or did it come from Canada? The same can be said about pork and poultry products. The country of origin labeling program was designed to let consumers know where their meats were coming from. That program is now under fire because other nations, namely Canada and Mexico are proposing retaliatory tariffs on some of the products that we, the United States, export.

Congressman Ralph Abraham said of the U.S. House's decision to repeal the country of origin labeling program is not only about beef, pork, and poultry producers.

Soybeans, corn, wheat, and rice could also come under this labeling, initially.  They're all grown in my district.  So my vote protected my farmers.

Abraham's district is in North Louisiana but as you can see the commodities that could be affected are grown and produced in our part of the state as well. This measure will now head to the United States Senate for further debate.

Abraham believes that repealing this labeling plan will be a good thing for all Louisiana agriculture producers. It will in effect strengthen our trade bonds with our immediate neighbors to the north and south of our borders.

These are our neighbors, we want to trade with them effectively.  At the same time, we don't want to get into a retaliatory tariff war with them because we export more to them than they import to us, as far as these particular products.

Abraham's comments were reported in a story published by the Louisiana Radio Network.