Canada, Mexico defeat USA in WTO meat ruling

Canada and Mexico won a trade case against a U.S. law on meat labeling on Friday, in a move that may boost shipments of cattle and hogs to the United States.

A World Trade Organization dispute panel agreed with their complaint that mandatory U.S. labeling laws were too stringent, giving U.S. livestock an unfair advantage over imports from Mexico and Canada.

The panel said the U.S. rules, called country of origin labeling, or COOL, violated WTO rules on technical barriers to trade.