Australia will have mandatory country of origin labelling for food soon:
Australia will introduce mandatory country-of-origin food labeling from 2016, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Tuesday, a move given impetus by a hepatitis outbreak earlier in the year blamed on contaminated berries from China.
Under the new rules, food labels will show consumers where products are made, grown or packaged, Abbott told reporters in Canberra.
Domestically produced products will have a green and gold kangaroo logo, alongside a bar chart showing the proportions of ingredients coming from Australia.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce dismissed any criticism of xenophobia, insisting the new law was simply closing a loophole.
"In the past, it was always a case of frustration where you would pick up a can and it would say something like 'made in Australia'. The overwhelming sentiment of that statement was that obviously this product is Australian. Then, on greater investigation, it became apparent it was anything but Australian," Joyce said.
"It might have been put into a can in Australia but that is as far as it went. What this does is it gives you a clear understanding."
Abbott said companies would be encouraged to go further and identify the origin of key ingredients.
When country-of-origin labeling was proposed in February, some analysts said the laws could contravene World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
The WTO has ruled against similar labeling in the beef sector in the United States on the grounds that it favored domestic livestock.
Abbott said he was confident the new regulations would satisfy WTO rules and Joyce insisted the U.S. case was not comparable.
How burdensome will the requirements be on various players in the food production and selling process? Will the requirements lead to segregation of foreign and domestic products during production, and thus extra costs for using foreign products, thereby discouraging the use of some foreign products?
And getting a bit off topic, what if there is a foreign company with a green and gold kangaroo logo as its trademark?
