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U.S. dairy group watching common food name issue in Japan-EU trade deal

A U.S. dairy group says the new trade agreement between Japan and the European Union might further complicate the use of several common food names.  Shawna Morris with National Milk Producers and the Consortium for Common Food Names says, “With respect to this week’s news with Japan, I’d say the jury is still out on what exactly this agreement is going to mean for Geographical Indications and U.S. companies rights to use common food names.”

A summary of the new Japan-EU agreement says the European Geographical Indications for more than 200 foodstuffs, wines, and spirits based on European places would have a “high level of protection”, making it difficult for producers outside of the EU to sell products like champagne or parmesan cheese.

Morris tells Brownfield she has not seen Japan’s documents and wants to know if Japan will keep their existing Geographical Indications guidelines.  “It’s certainly our expectations that Japan is going to use the Geographical Indications system that it put in place so painstakingly over the past few years to independently evaluate which G-I’s deserve protection and open those up for public comment.”

Morris could not say what the impact of the new trade agreement would be on the U.S., but confirms protecting European Geographical Indications would hurt U.S. cheese exports.