The United States Congress passed an expansion of the COOL requirements on September 29, 2008, to include more food items such as fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables.
COOL regulations exist for all other covered commodities such as fresh fruits, raw vegetables, fish, shellfish, muscle cuts and ground lamb, chicken, goat, peanuts, pecans, ginseng, and macadamia nuts.
The law authorizes exceptions to labeling requirements, such as for articles incapable of being marked or where the cost would be "economically prohibitive."
A guidance document of the FDA states:[5] The contrasting intents of these bills reflected the continuing divergence of opinion among lawmakers over whether a federally mandated labeling program is needed.
Supporters of the COOL law argue that it is unfair to exempt meats and produce from the longstanding country labeling already required of almost all other imported consumer products, from automobiles to most other foods.
Food safety problems can as likely originate in domestic supplies as in imports, as evidenced by the more than 30 recalls of US meat and poultry products announced by USDA in 2006 alone, these opponents point out.
[6] The Canadian federal government argued before the WTO that American "country of origin" labelling rules (COOL) actually worked to the detriment of the meat industry on both sides of the border by increasing costs, lowering processing efficiency and otherwise distorting trade across the Canada-U.S. border.
[8] Canada and Mexico asked the WTO for another review and permission to impose more than $2 billion a year in retaliatory tariffs, and the ruling was made public in summer 2014.
In spring 2021, the CBC remarked that a representative from the R-CALF trade lobby said: "[When] we had those labels in place [it] happened to coincide with the highest nominal prices paid to cattle producers in history".