Tag: geographical indications

House GSP Bill Supports Fair Market Access for U.S. Dairy Farmers

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The National Milk Producers Federation, U.S. Dairy Export Council and Consortium for Common Food Names commended today’s House Ways and Means Committee markup of a bill that would renew the Generalized Systems of Preferences (GSP) trade program with new agriculture-specific eligibility criteria, giving U.S. dairy producers a fairer opportunity to sell their products in key markets. GSP has not been in effect since it expired at the end of 2020.

The GSP trade program helps developing countries use trade to grow their economies by eliminating U.S. duties for a wide range of products. GSP-eligible countries must meet certain conditions. Today’s bill will introduce new provisions for the agriculture industry, including requirements that beneficiary countries provide open and equitable market access to U.S. agriculture exports and protect the generic use of common food and beverage terms like “parmesan” and “feta.”

“American dairy producers and cooperatives rely upon fair access to international markets,” said Gregg Doud, NMPF president and CEO. “We’re thankful for Representatives Smith, Panetta and Fischbach’s leadership on preserving market access for U.S. dairy exports and sending a message to competitors who try to create an unlevel playing field.”

“The U.S. dairy community is grateful for these expanded criteria, which will enable America’s dairy farmers and producers to compete on a level playing field in these new and growing markets,” said Krysta Harden, USDEC president and CEO. “A special thank you to Representatives Adrian Smith, Jimmy Panetta, and Michelle Fischbach, who continue to be champions for the U.S. dairy industry. Now more than ever, our members count on exports to succeed, and we look forward to supporting this bill through to the finish line.”

As the European Union continues to try to monopolize common name foods and beverages  by imposing overreaching geographical indication policies on countries worldwide, the new GSP eligibility requirements would provide a vital response on behalf of American cheesemakers.

“The European Union has expanded its protectionist and anti-competitive campaign to monopolize common name food and beverages well beyond its borders, to countries in every corner of the globe,” said Jaime Castaneda, CCFN executive director. “The U.S. government has the political and economic influence to fight back. We’re pleased to see that Congress is starting to utilize the tools at its disposal to secure producers’ common names rights.”

Capitol Hill Event Adds Momentum as Consortium Keeps Busy Pace

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) – an organization staffed by the NMPF trade policy team – joined Agri-Pulse in hosting a bipartisan congressional event at the U.S. Capitol to highlight the need for heightened U.S. government efforts to protect generic food and beverage terms. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) shared remarks at the March 1 event on the need for a robust U.S. strategy to counter the European Union’s (EU) aggressive campaign of misusing their geographical indications system to monopolize common terms like “parmesan” and “feta” for their own use.

The hybrid virtual event also featured speakers from Sartori, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, USA Rice, The Wine Institute and the North American Meat Institute. Participants highlighted that American dairy farmers and other food and beverage producers continue to lose market share overseas and face costly trademark registration battles domestically just to continuing selling their products that consumers recognize as generic.

The lawmakers and industry representatives called on the Biden Administration to take action to establish firm and clear protections for commonly used food and beverage terms to safeguard U.S. export markets. NMPF and CCFN continue to work with the U.S. Trade Representative and USDA to identify avenues of advancing a proactive U.S. strategy to protect the rights of common name food and beverage producers throughout the United States.

In addition to its March 1 event, NMPF remained active on the issue of geographic indications and the importance of allowing common cheese names in February, holding a session with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Feb. 21 for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) governments on the importance of preserving common names.

NMPF’s Jaime Castaneda, acting in his capacity as CCFN’s Executive Director, provided remarks to the APEC session attendees to underscore the negative impacts on trade and local producers when common names are restricted. CCFN members and experts rounded out the event’s speakers.

The event followed efforts on behalf of common names earlier in the year, with NMPF, in partnership with USDEC, submitting comments to USTR on Jan. 30, emphasizing its support for firm and explicit commitments assuring the future use of specific common names. The comments were in response to USTR’s request for input on its annual Special 301 review of intellectual property trade issues and supported more comprehensive comments made by the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN).

The European Union’s decade-long efforts to monopolize common names – like “parmesan” and “feta” – for its own producers has created a deeply one-sided playing field, restricting American producers’ ability to market and sell their products overseas. In its comments, NMPF implored the Administration to secure guarantees from trading partners that they will not abuse geographical indication rules to restrict the use of common food and beverage names.

U.S. Trade Representative Remarks on EU GI Abuses in Special 301 Report

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today welcomed the U.S. Trade Representative’s prioritization in this year’s Special 301 Report of the importance of preserving U.S. food and beverage producers’ market access rights in the face of persistent efforts by the European Union (EU) to misuse geographical indications (GIs) and create non-tariff barriers to trade in markets around the world. The report follows detailed comments on the global scale of various common name threats submitted in January by CCFN and supported by USDEC and NMPF.

This annual report outlines global challenges on intellectual property issues and describes in detail the European Union’s (EU) campaign to eliminate competition by restricting the use of common food and beverage terms, such as “parmesan,” “bologna” and “chateau.” The EU’s strategy, active in numerous countries around the world, erects unfair barriers to trade that negatively impact non-EU exporters relying on common food names, as illustrated by USTR’s report which noted, “As part of its trade agreement negotiations, the EU pressures trading partners to prevent any producer, except from those in certain EU regions, from using certain product names, such as fontina, gorgonzola, parmesan, asiago, or feta. This is despite the fact that these terms are the common names for products produced in countries around the world.”

“We whole-heartedly agree with USTR about the harm imposed by the EU’s deliberate restriction of generic food and beverage terms in markets around the world,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “USTR’s Special 301 report should serve as a foundation upon which the administration can build a more proactive and focused global campaign of its own to counteract the EU’s long running efforts. U.S. farmers and food producers, and others around the world, deserve the chance to compete fairly in export markets.”

“The U.S. government has accurately diagnosed the EU’s deliberate global strategy of cloaking nontariff trade barriers as ‘GIs’ so that it doesn’t have to compete head-to-head in common product categories with U.S. food producers,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “By deploying all of the tools at its disposal, including use of existing U.S. FTAs, the upcoming IPEF talks and TIFAs, the administration can take strong action to establish concrete market access protections with our trading partners around the world. The time for this is now and we stand ready to support those proactive efforts on behalf of American farmers.”

“Because we export the equivalent of 17% of U.S. milk production, trade barriers like bans on the use of common cheese names have profound consequences for the entire American dairy industry, from the many small and medium-sized family-owned companies to farmer-owned cooperatives and the workers employed there,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “U.S. dairy farmers and cheesemakers only want a fair shot at sharing their high-quality, sustainably produced products with consumers around the globe. By doubling down on combating global restrictions on the sale of common name products, USTR can defend opportunities for American-made products internationally and the jobs they support here at home.”