According to the Italian association of producers of dairy products, Assolatte, the ‘Special Report 301’ on intellectual property – recently published by the U.S. Department of State for International Trade (USTR) – is a real attack on the European Geographical Indications system.
Assolatte says the report is part of a “war” that U.S. producers are waging against the European system of Geographical Indications protection, which they consider a non-tariff barrier to American exports. Actually, the GI system defends Italy dairy sector from made in USA counterfeiting.
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MADE IN ITALY MAKING THE DIFFERENCE
“We have been fighting this war on the U.S. market for years – underlines Giuseppe Ambrosi, the president of Assolatte – with huge investments in promotional activities to teach consumers the difference between the original ‘Made in Italy’ cheese and counterfeited products. Today, however, the war has moved from the market to American institutions”.
According to the Special Report 301, Geographical Indications would violate trademark regulations, preventing the growth of the American dairy sector and causing a commercial asymmetry in the agri-food sector between the European Union and the United States. All at the expense of American producers.
“The issues contained in the special report – underlines Ambrosi – are exactly those that our overseas competitors successfully used a few months ago to include the Italian dairy sector in the Boeing-Airbus dispute. Even if these are pretentious arguments, they have nonetheless convinced the U.S. administration to impose additional duties of 25%, which is still in force today, on Italian cheeses”.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
The risk now is that of new, additional duties. And Italian companies would not have any means to resist on the US market.
The trade policy of the European Union and the results obtained in the protection of Geographical Indications with the free trade agreements have favoured the diffusion of Italian PDO cheeses in the world. In fact, out of 300 or so European cheeses protected, 51 are Italian.