Canada’s frustration with the U-S over Country of Origin Legislation continues.

U-S Senators Hoeven and Stabenow have proposed a bill that would repeal cool, by making it a voluntary process.

Federal Ag Minister Gerry Ritz says should the U-S follow Stabenow’s proposal, Canada will have no choice but to impose billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs on U-S exports.

"It doesn't change the game at all. The only way to get out of the box they built themselves is to repeal COOL unequivocally with no strings attached. What she wants to do is legislate some sort of label, but that to me is just COOL 2.0. That's not on for Canada. It doesn't pass the smell test for us or her own industry."

Ritz says the only way for the U.S. to avoid retaliation is for the U.S. Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and Senator Roberts and put forward legislation that repeals COOL once and for all.

Earlier this year, the World Trade Organization ruled that the current mandatory Country of Origin Labeling law in the U-S does not comply with international trade agreements.

Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart says the U-S is taking too long to repeal it’s country of origin labeling.

Stewart says the repeal bill passed through the House of Representatives fairly quickly but then got hung up in the Senate.

He says Senator Stabenow’s bill to move COOL to a voluntary process does not satisfy the needs of the Canadian Cattle industry."It doesn't change the fact that our products would be discriminated against in US packing plants, and labeling is not the issue as far as we're concerned, but that discrimination discounts our cattle and hogs to US production at the packing plants in the US."

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz issued a statement yesterday saying if the U.S. moves forward with its short-sighted proposal, Canada would have no choice but to impose up to three billion dollars worth of retaliatory tariffs this fall.