SENATE
                           Final Reading
                        May 6, 2015First Regular Session
               Seventieth General Assembly
                    STATE OF COLORADO
                                                  ENGROSSED
                                                           
                                                           
 LLS NO. R15-1071.01 Rebecca Hausmann x2172       SJR15-031
                   SENATE SPONSORSHIP
 Baumgardner, 
 
                    HOUSE SPONSORSHIP
 Young, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Senate Committees
 House Committees
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                  SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 15-031 
       Concerning the importance of crafting a solution to
            Country of Origin Labeling that facilitates free trade
            with Colorado's largest trading partners without
            retaliatory tariffs due to the importance of
            international trade to Colorado's economy and
            agriculture.
       
       
            WHEREAS, Colorado agriculture contributes $41 billion to the
       state's economy and employs nearly 173,000 people; and 
       
            WHEREAS, Canada and Mexico represent the two largest export
       markets for Colorado agricultural products, together comprising a 42%
       share of Colorado's export market; and
       
            WHEREAS, In 2008 the United States Congress passed a
       mandatory "Country of Origin Labeling" (mCOOL) law, Pub.L. 110-234,
       for muscle cuts of meat sold at retail, which law requires meat produced
       in the United States from imported livestock to bear a different label than
       meat produced from United States-born livestock; and
       
            WHEREAS, Effective May 23, 2013, the United States
       Department of Agriculture (USDA) adopted a rule implementing
       mCOOL that requires labels to provide consumers with more detailed
       information for muscle cuts of meat by requiring that product labels
       specify the locations of the birth, raising, and slaughter of the animal from
       which the meat is derived and eliminating the allowance for commingling
       of muscle cuts of meat from different origins; and
       
            WHEREAS, Additional handling costs for the labels are imposed
       disproportionately on producers that use imported livestock; and
       
            WHEREAS, The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that the
       United States' mCOOL law discriminates against imported livestock from
       Canada and Mexico in violation of U.S. trade obligations; and
        
            WHEREAS, If the mCOOL legislation is not brought into
       compliance with Article 2.1 of the WTO agreement, Colorado could face
       substantial retaliatory tariffs on exported agricultural and nonagricultural
       products, which will cause a negative impact on jobs in Colorado and the
       economy of the state; and
       
            WHEREAS, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the USDA, has called the
       current mCOOL law impossible to fix via the regulatory process; now,
       therefore,
       
            Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Seventieth General Assembly
       of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:
       
            That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly find that:
       
            (1)  Export penalties on producers are unacceptable; and
       
            (2)  It is important that the United States refrain from violating the
       WTO agreement to avoid these export penalties and allow continued
       facilitation of trade with our two largest trading partners, Canada and
       Mexico, which represent almost $550 billion in trade with the United
       States.
       
            Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent
       to President Barack Obama; the Secretary of the USDA, Tom Vilsack; the
       United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Michael Froman; the
       Honorable Michael Bennet; the Honorable Cory Gardner; the Honorable
       Diana DeGette; the Honorable Jared Polis; the Honorable Ed Perlmutter;
       the Honorable Ken Buck; the Honorable Scott Tipton; the Honorable
       Doug Lamborn; the Honorable Michael Coffman; the Honorable Mike
       Conaway, United States Congressman from Texas; the Honorable Pat
       Roberts, United States Senator from Kansas; Canadian Consul General
       Marcy Grossman; and Mexican Consul General Carlos Bello.