As one man the EU countries have launched a tough campaign to rid the "Parma" and 34 other geographical indications (GIs) illegally appropriated by non-European producers (including Roquefort, Champagne, Gorgonzola ...). It is not yet a ransom from lacerations on the liberation of Iraq, but the "strategy gourmet" European nevertheless appears solid.
Objective: To create a multilateral register of GIs, in order to ensure their protection equivalent to that received in the Union and extend the types of products they are applicable.
The issue that the EU intends to include in trade negotiations before the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, it is not trivial: the second the Commission is linked to the fate of the IG that a significant part of the European economy, for example, that of 138,000 farms in France and about 300,000 workers in Italy. In the EU there are well-IG 4800 (4200 for wines and other alcoholic beverages and 600 for other products).
Commission spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez of "the recent CAP reform is a step towards an international competition based on quality rather than quantity, even to the benefit of developing countries. But this effort is likely to be in vain if the main instrument to enforce that status, geographical indications, are not protected on the international markets. "
For Brussels, the protection offered by current WTO rules are insufficient, for example, nothing prevents an American manufacturer of own label a cheese "Roquefort-style" if somewhere in the product is labeled "Made in the USA". Add to this the problem of geographical indications - before the TRIPS Agreement came into force prohibiting such practices, and have been registered as trademarks in third countries. Case in point, that of "Parma", trademarked by a Canadian citizen when he was still possible, with the result that in Canada can be sold as "Parma" Parma ham that is not, while the original must be marketed under the brand name "Number 1 Ham", with losses estimated in Brussels approximately 3 million Euros per year.
"We have prepared a list of 35 geographical indications that have become generic in international trade or that have become trademarks: we want to get them back and use them exclusively," said Arancha Gonzalez.
And Canada, with U.S., Australia and Argentina, is at the forefront in opposing the demands of the EU. Sergio Marchi, Canadian ambassador to the WTO, said that "the issue is not part of the negotiating agenda agreed in Doha and in any case it would be useless our efforts to liberalize agricultural trade if, through the exclusive right to use names that in many countries are now commonly used, re-create monopolies.
The battle, in a dossier already tricky enough, looks difficult. The EU issues on the table, as well as interests, strong. Not as it seems to be its credibility undermined by protectionist trade policies are still too in the primary and certainly not enhanced by a reform of the CAP that many consider "watered down".
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