The Alberta Beef Producers are very excited about the Monday's World Trade Organization ruling against the American's Country of Origin Labelling, or "COOL" legislation.

Association President Rich Smith says the ruling paves the way for possible retaliatory measures by the Canadian Government against the U.S.

"This is the final avenue of appeal that the United States had, with respect to this. This is the fourth decision that's gone in the favour of Canada and Mexico on this issue and there's no more processes the Americans can go into prevent retaliation. We're hoping that this will finally get the American Congress to actually take the appropriate steps and repeal the "COOL" provisions on red meat."

Smith says the W-T-O's decision is all fine and good, but they still have work to do before declaring total victory.

"We need to keep pushing the process forward. So the U.S. has exhausted all their appeals, but now is the time for us to make sure that the Government of Canada get authorization to impose retaliatory tariffs. Retaliation isn't what we want. We want the problem to be fixed. Which would involve the Congress in the United States repealing the red meat provisions of "COOL" and that's when producers would see the benefits."

He says if and when the U.S. repeals the legislation, the impact on you and me will be unnoticeable.

At least in the short term.

Smith says over the long term as the market re-balances itself, beef and pork prices will likely stabilize, and with increased competition, prices for consumers could even drop.

Smith says the industry has spent the last eight years fighting "COOL" at a cost of over three million dollars, and a loss to Canadian producers of around a billion dollars a year.