Analyzing the impacts of mandatory country of origin labeling in EU pork and poultry sectors on markets, cost of production and trade

In this paper, we look at country of mandatory country of origin labelling (MCOOL) that is implemented for meat in the European Union (EU) as outlined in Regulation No 1169/2011 and might be extended to other products. A framework is developed to assess costs and benefits and market impacts (trade flows, competitiveness). The framework is applied to the EU meat case. Results indicate that the impact of origin labeling on costs range between 6€/t and 73€/t, while the impacts on net trade at member state level are in general limited, with a few exceptions (vary from 0.1 to 10.3 per cent).