Geographical indications | The issue is proving to be a significant hurdle in U.S.-EU trade negotiations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Canada’s successful free trade agreement with the European Union is giving both the EU and the United States optimism that their bilateral talks could succeed.
However, a bunch of cheese names could derail it all.
“GIs are not fantasy names,” Giulio Menato, agriculture counsellor at the EU’s embassy in Washington, told the North American Agricultural Journalists annual meeting April 6.
Menato was referring to geographical indications, which are place-specific names for products, such as roquefort cheese or many French wines.
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Hundreds of European food products use place-based names that require them to be produced only in specific areas, and the EU is insisting that they be protected in any free trade deal with the U.S.
The EU says those names are an honest description of a real product, and products from other regions should not be allowed to use the same name.
However, American agricultural groups are pushing back against the EU demands, claiming European food and drink makers are using GIs as non-tariff trade barriers.
Shawna Morris, the U.S. National Milk Producers Association’s vice-president for trade, said the U.S. industry has no problem with legitimate name protection but believes European industries are exploiting the idea to harass and hobble competitors of legitimately similar products.
“We’re concerned about there being a creep from the GI applications over time as they seek to include a broader range of terms in the scope of protection that they have in place,” said Morris.
As well, U.S. dairy farmers and dairy product producers suspect EU producers could use GIs to pressure other countries to not accept U.S. products that have the same names as European ones.
For instance, Morris said there are reports that one foreign country has said it does not want to accept provolone cheese from the U.S. because it would breach the terms of its trade deal with the EU.
Menato said the EU is not trying to protect common names such as cheddar, gouda, prosciutto or provolone.
“These are all terms that are generic,” he said.
However, terms like parmesan, gorgonzola and feta are more place-specific.
The GI issue isn’t the only sticking point in the EU-U.S. free trade talks, but it is presently the most hotly debated in the U.S.
Twenty-five senators recently demanded that the U.S. administration not agree to any deal that challenges U.S. producers’ rights to name identical products the same as those in Europe.
There is already protection in U.S. trademark law for geographically based names.
Canada has agreed to expand GI protection in its proposed deal with the EU but received domestic market protection for Canadian-made products with names such as parmesan cheese and Black Forest ham.
The details of the Canada-EU deal have not been fully negotiated yet, so firm lists of common and GI-restricted names are not yet known.
Dave Salmonsen of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Washington office said U.S. farmers hope a U.S.-EU deal can succeed because many trade impediments have bedeviled cross-Atlantic trade for years, including scraps over approval of genetically modified crops, bans on hormone-affected beef and the use of ractopamine in pigs.
The clashes have occurred even though European scientific and food safety authorities have often approved American methods and products.
“We do OK with the science,” said Salmonsen, but inter-country EU politics prevents many resolutions from being reached. Some disputes go back to the 1990s.
“There are a lot of old issues here that this is an opportunity to address,” said Salmonsen.
Menato said in an interview that Canada’s success in reaching a free trade agreement in principle boded well for the EU-U.S. situation, as contentious as it now seems.
“It clearly set a precedent for further negotiations saying that there is a solution for everything,” said Menato.
“It might take a while, there were a number of complications that perhaps have postponed the conclusion of the agreement (with Canada), but we were able to find solutions for all the sectors.”
Salmonsen said in an interview that the U.S. looks at the Canada-E.U. deal as evidence that the EU might be serious about making a deal and not just talking.
“We were pleased to see that the EU was willing to negotiate and willing to come to closure on some of these issues,” said Salmonsen.
