Brad Wall unhappy about American country-of-origin bill

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wallis nothappy about the passage of an American bill permitting country-of-origin labelling in the U.S.

The mandate forces U.S.companies to sort and label foreign meat differently from their own meat products.

Wall said the trade practice will hurt meat producers in his province.

"Industry has sort of being living with [these]provisions, even though they are hurtful, and frankly [itis] trying to diversify markets," Wall told CBC News.

In fact, producers say they are already dealing with the negative repercussionsfrom U.S.country-of-origin labelling. Over the past five years, the Americans' separate labelling of Canadian products has cut Canada's meat exports to the U.S.in half.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign off on the new bill later this week, making the legislation official.

Wall said the provincialgovernment is doing what it can to mitigate the loss to Saskatchewan producers.

"We're going to continue to diversify our markets. We're going to look to other places like Asiathat are growingand that are interested in what we have to offer," Wall said.

The Premier also told CBC News that Saskatchewan would support the federal government's efforts to stop the bill, although he admitteditsproponents outweigh Saskatchewan allies in the states.

In the past, the federal government has made it clearthat it would retaliate against any country-of-origin labelling bill if it was passed.