This week, the Chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation, Randy Mooney will testify before Congress regarding the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Act. The Federation’s Chris Galen says his group remains concerned about the Europeans hard stance over common food names, also known as geographical indicators.

He says the Obama administration seems to be in a hurry to get trade agreements completed before they leave office early next year. As a result they may not be paying attention to critical EU trade barriers.

Galen says the U.S. trade negotiators had success addressing GI issues in the Trans Pacific Partnership. However, the Europe presents a very different problem regarding the issue. He says many of the cheese products in question had their origination in Europe.

Some of the common GI’s the Federation is concerned about include Parmesan, feta and Asiago.