Brussels, 16/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 16 January, the European Union and Morocco reached an agreement on the mutual protection of their geographical indications (GI).
The agreement also aims to promote and boost trade in agricultural products and foodstuffs produced in both Morocco and the European Union. The text of the agreement has been initialled at negotiator-in-chief level. It will be put forward for the approval of the Council and the European Parliament - and of the Moroccan legislative authorities - before it finally enters into force.
The agreement is deemed to protect: 1) the list of EU GIs in Morocco (around 3,200 names) for agricultural products, processed agricultural products, wines, spirits and aromatised wines registered in the EU at the cut-off date of 9 January 2013; - the list of Moroccan GIs in the EU (30 names) for agricultural products, processed agricultural products and wines registered in Morocco at the same cut-off date.
The agreement provides for the regular update of the names to be protected, so as to ensure the reciprocal protection of the parties' new GIs (meaning those registered after the cut-off date of 9 January 2013), as long as the procedure applicable prior to protection has been complied with. It also provides for coexistence with existing trademarks (article 10). No planned phasing-out of protected products is planned.
Phil Hogan, the commissioner for agriculture, said that “this agreement gives relations between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco a new impetus. Cooperation in the field of geographical indications is part of our mutual commitment for a quality agriculture that preserves local products”.
“This agreement provides a real opportunity for our growers and especially the smaller ones who have real authentic know-how to maximise the added value of their production”, said Aziz Akhannouch, the Moroccan agriculture minister. (LC)