Brussels, 14/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has indicated to Member States that negotiations with the Community and the USA on the conclusion of a bilateral agreement on the wine trade are still experiencing difficulties, even though some hesitant progress has recently been made. Discussions stalled at the end of last year following the substantial progress in October EUROPE 4 December 2003). During the meeting on Friday, trade experts from EU Member States (Committee 133), the representative of the European Commission explained that at the request of the French delegation, the objective of the discussion between the parties consisted of reaching a partial agreement according to which all the wine and spirits with "semi-generic" Community names would be continued to be sold in the USA but could not be exported into the Community. The Commission hopes that in these negotiations, that only the names and brands that exist today can be used (such as Sauternes). The Americans, however, are expected to include on the wine labels the origin of the production (such as Sauternes from California).