The federal government is facing pressure from the Canadian Sheep Federation to hear some of their concerns in the Country of Origin Labeling Debate.
Federation Vice Chair Rob Scott says he wants to see the US remove COOL for lamb and sheep, in addition to removing it for cattle, hogs and poultry.
Scott says their main message they want to get across to the federal government, is they want to see more feeder lambs going across the border.
"We did have access to that market prior to 2003 when the border was close because of BSE. When it did open up again, it was restricted by the COOL law. Prior to 2003, we were shipping $18 million worth of live lambs into the states. As of last year, we gained less than $440 thousand of that."
Since COOL was put in place, Scott says it has limited large federal processors in the US from wanting to purchase Canadian sheep.
"The reason for that is the logistics to meet the criteria for COOL law means that the livestock and product have to be kept separate on their lines so it's an expense that these plants won't take on. We can ship feeder and slaughter lambs into the states now currently, but only to the smaller plants that wouldn't have this as an issue."
Scott says the federation has started a letter writing campaign to the federal government to make them aware of their concerns over this issue.
