A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel released its preliminary report recently, essentially agreeing with Canada and Mexico that U.S. country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) requirements violate the WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. The results aren't particularly surprising or unexpected. Nor will the decision precipitate any immediate change in mandatory COOL as the final ruling won't be published until September. Even then, however, the process of international trade is such thatit will take additional time for the ramifications to take effect. Plus, the U.S. could choose to simply bear the penalties and continue as is. Thus, it could be a slow death for COOL.
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