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Common food names could be protected in new bill

A bipartisan, bicameral group of U.S. lawmakers has introduced legislation that would preserve common food names in trade negotiations.

“We’ve got to get more serious about tackling what the Europeans are up to on geographical indication.”

Senior Director of the Consortium for Common Food Names Shawna Morris tells Brownfield the EU often uses geographical indications to block U.S. exports.

“It’s really a protectionist approach that Europe is driving here, that harms certainly American farmers and American food producers, but farmers and food producers, and a number of other markets around the world as well,” she explains.

The Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports, or SAVE, Act would amend the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to define a list of common names for ag commodities and food products, like parmesan, and direct the Secretary of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate trade deals that defend names in foreign markets.

A coalition of ag groups, including the American Farm Bureau, National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), USA Rice, Wine Institute, and others, say the legislation proactively establishes protections for food and beverages using common terms in export markets.

Morris says the coalition plans to make the legislation a farm bill priority, which would be the first time it would address common names.

The measure is led in the Senate by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Tina Smith (D-MN) and led in the House by Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Jim Costa (D-CA), Michelle Fischbach (R-MN) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA).

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