Brussels, 04/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On the sidelines of the eighth round of TTIP negotiations, the association of American milk exporters, the US Dairy Export Council (USDEC), told US and EU negotiators in Brussels on Wednesday 4 February about its concerns on the EU's gradual approach to geographical indications (GI).
Firstly, USDEC believes it is “unacceptable” for the approach to GI in the EU-Canada free trade agreement to be taken as a model for TTIP. Such an approach is based on US producers renouncing their right to use generic food names such as “asiago”, “feta”, “fontina”, “munster” and “gorgonzola”, USDEC states in a press release from the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), to which USDEC belongs. “Roughly $21 billion in US cheese production uses European-origin names, reflecting the immigrant roots in the US that trace back to many European countries”, USDEC states.
Secondly, USDEC criticises the lack of viability in the European approach. “We do not believe that products with a very specific geographic designation included in their compound name, such as 'Gouda Holland', can be protected to the benefit of producers and consumers, while the single word 'gouda' clearly remains unrestricted and in free usage”, the association states.
Lastly, USDEC disapproves of the proliferation of EU prohibitions around the world - as part of the recent trade agreements with South Africa and Morocco or its efforts to register new products, such as “havarti” cheese (for which an international Codex standard already exists). “As a result of these efforts, competition to EU products is eliminated by restricting third country markets for US exports”, USDEC states. The association calls for the negotiations on GI to be handled in a separate forum “in order to carefully assess the legitimate concerns of both sides, including finding a solution for the reintroduction into the EU market of key US products bearing names that until only recently had been viewed widely throughout the EU as generic - such as US-made 'parmesan' and 'feta' cheeses”. (EH)