There was no retaliation because Congress withdrew mCOOL based on WTOs request, so trade continued as normal.
If you want to play hardball with trade imbalances and say "take our meat or we won't take your goods" ag will always lose because a high percent of our exports are ag products.  If I wasn't working in ag and only looking at the financial imbalance I'd probably be in favor of hardball - but ag is my business.