Recently the European Union entered into a bi lateral trade agreement with Canada. Under the deal Canada gave up on geographic indicators and is allowing the E.U.. to restrict the use of common food names. National Milk Producer Federation’s Chris Galen says that deal is creating a trade barrier to cheeses from the U.S. and will have other negative trade affects.
Galen says G-I’s will be a key area of discussion and disagreement in the Trans Atlantic Trade Investment and Partnership talks between the U.S. and European Union.
Galen says the U.S. isn’t alone in fighting to keep Geographic Indicators from restricting common food name usage. He says Australia and New Zealand are in the same boat as the United States on that issue.