McCaskill Stands with Missouri’s Ranchers, American Consumers

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill urged the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S.’s top trade representative to help American consumers make informed choices by allowing Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) on meat products.

“American consumers deserve to know if the beef they’re buying is coming from Missouri or Argentina,” said McCaskill, who was born in Rolla, Mo. “At that point they’re free to buy whatever they’d like—competition will only  make their choices cheaper and better—but the information should be right there on the package.”

In 2012, the World Trade Organization, an international body designed to resolve trade disputes, required the United States, in order to comply with international agreements, to make modifications to a program that showed the country of origin on meat packaging. Those changes must be completed by May 2013. McCaskill is joining a bipartisan group of legislators strongly urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to complete this task in a timely manner, and in a way that continues to protect American consumers.    

“It is now critical that the U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Department of Agriculture work together to find a regulatory solution that can be implemented by the livestock industry and serves consumers as Congress intended” the letter reads.