Brussels, 05/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Reuters agency reported on Tuesday 5 October that the EU and the United States had reached a tentative agreement that geographic indications would be included in ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). This removes one of the main stumbling blocks to conclusion of the multilateral pact agreed by the 37 stakeholder countries - Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, United States and the 27 EU member states - at the 11th round of negotiations in Tokyo on Saturday 2 October.
The EU demand that protection of geographic indications be part of ACTA, just like copyrights and trade marks, was one of the main areas of difference between the EU and the United States. Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht warned after the round of talks in Washington at the end of August that he would not concede on his demand, and he threatened to pull the EU out of the final agreement.
A long-running trade dispute over the right to use European designations for products not from the region named has opposed the EU and the US at the WTO and in Doha negotiations. The US agrifood industry is concerned that including geographic indications in ACTA would make a number of common American products, such as Kraft parmesan, illegal and, therefore, liable for seizure by customs authorities. A US source quoted by Reuters said “the core of the compromise is that parties should provide border measures without discriminating between various Intellectual Property rights”. When contacted by EUROPE, the trade commissioner's staff declined to say more than what was contained in the joint final statement by stakeholders published on Saturday (see EUROPE 10228), while awaiting the imminent publication of the text of the final agreement. (E.H./transl.rt)