CSPI has been leading the charge for easy-to-interpret front-of-package nutrition labeling and in 2006 petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to create such a labeling system.  Not surprisingly, several other countries, notably Chile, are far ahead of the United States.  NAFTA-member Canada is also developing its own front-of-package system.  So it is very distressing to learn that President Trump’s trade negotiators are using NAFTA as an excuse to pour cold water on front-of-package labeling.  This is just another case of the administration putting trade in the front seat and public health in the back.  As the New York Times has convincingly demonstrated, the United States Trade Representative’s hostility to front-of-package labeling has already had a chilling effect throughout the Americas.

More countries, and certainly the United States, Canada, and Mexico, should give consumers easy-to-read front-of-package labeling that quickly communicates the information they need to avoid diet-related diseases.  The world is experiencing an epidemic of obesity, and public health agencies in these countries shouldn’t be handcuffed or undercut by trade officials.  This is not an “America First” policy; it is an “Industry First” policy, conducted at the expense of the health of consumers in the U.S. and abroad.