From Inside U.S. Trade, this is Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talking food labelling in the EU and U.S.:
Vilsack also seemed to urge a rethink of an EU law that requires food containing more than 0.9 percent GMO-derived product to be labeled as such. While hinting that he believes the EU should change its approach -- a longstanding U.S. position -- he did not explicitly suggest that the U.S. is seeking such an outcome in TTIP. Abolishing the labeling requirement would certainly entail altering EU legislation and therefore be unacceptable to the commission.
"Labeling in the U.S. is different. The philosophy is different. Labeling in terms of the U.S. historically has been for nutrition information -- how many calories, how much sodium content, and so forth," Vilsack said. "Our view is that in the U.S. when you label something you are essentially conveying the message that there may be something that you need to know about with reference to this product that may be harmful to you if you don't know," he said.
This makes me wonder about the message with country of origin labelling (COOL): Are we saying that there is something harmful in foreign food?
