2025 Special 301 Report<\/a>, released this week by the Trump administration. <\/p>\nThe report outlines major global intellectual property concerns, including the EU\u2019s GI policies. The US trade bodies say these efforts \u201crestrict the use of widely recognized food and beverage terms to only specific European producers and effectively cut US producers out of certain key markets\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF, said: \u201cLast year, the United States imported nearly $3 billion more in dairy products from the European Union than we exported to Europe. Europe\u2019s abuse of the GI system is a significant reason for that deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cEU GI schemes create a two-tiered system that benefits European producers and stamps out competition. We appreciate that USTR is addressing this unfair practice and look forward to continuing to work together to level the playing field for US dairy producers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN, commented: \u201cThe European Union\u2019s approach to geographical indications is entirely unacceptable. It intentionally crowds out fair competition by restricting market access for US and international producers.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many trading partners have been coerced into imposing trade barriers for products using common food and beverage names. We appreciate United States Trade Representative\u2019s ongoing recognition of this issue but urge the US government to stop trading partners to succumbing to European pressures and imposing trade barriers on US products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC, added: \u201cEurope\u2019s misuse of geographical indications is nothing more than a trade barrier dressed up as intellectual property protection. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt not only unfairly strips American producers of the right to use common, widely understood terms, but significantly handcuffs commercial export opportunities. We welcome USTR\u2019s focus on this issue and appreciate the administration\u2019s dedication to protecting US market access rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
EU \u2018very open-minded\u2019 on common name protections<\/p>\n
In response, secretary general of the European Dairy Association (EDA) Alexander Anton told DairyReporter: <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite all our efforts over the last years, we have \u2013 obviously \u2013 not yet been successful in explaining both, the idea and the implementation of the European Quality Policy to our US partners. In many if not most other world regions, the idea is welcome and taken up: it is all about quality, transparency and, yes, supporting the local communities in preserving a cultural heritage and culinary treasures.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, the NMPF is focussing on third countries \u2013 first of all, the European Quality Policy does not hinder in any way the sales of US cheese excellence around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s also one of my takeaways from the ADPI\/ABI conference in Chicago earlier this week: the external trade figures for US cheese have developed over the last years in a very positive way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to trade agreements that other world regions conclude with the EU, the question of local protection of certain product names is always treated very carefully and, of course, in mutual respect and consensus. According to the national circumstances, that include also the consumer perception and expectations, different protection levels are defined in those agreements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis clearly shows that the EU, as a trusted global trade partner, is approaching these questions always very open-minded and is open for discussions \u2013 and we, the European lactopsh\u00e8re, are more than willing to discuss with our US partners not only the concept of our EU Quality Policy and its implementation, but also our future US-EU (dairy) trade relationship. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially true in todays\u2019 very complex global trade environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US-based National Milk Producers\u2019 Federation (NMPF) has blamed the EU\u2019s geographical indications scheme for US dairy\u2019s export…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[17730,12045,33644,33645,33646,33647,1472,33648,33649,33650,33651,33652,12985,7484,33653,2000,299,5187,33654,1203,33655,33656,33657,33658,622,33659,33660,33661,33662,19756,33663,33664,6661,33665,33666,33667,29244,33668,7674,33669,33670,33671],"class_list":{"0":"post-66079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-backgrounds","9":"tag-blue","10":"tag-bowl","11":"tag-brie","12":"tag-butter","13":"tag-carafe","14":"tag-cheese","15":"tag-cottage-cheese","16":"tag-cream","17":"tag-cultures","18":"tag-curd","19":"tag-dairy-product","20":"tag-dieting","21":"tag-drink","22":"tag-drinking-glass","23":"tag-eu","24":"tag-europe","25":"tag-european","26":"tag-feta-cheese","27":"tag-food","28":"tag-french-culture","29":"tag-freshness","30":"tag-glass-material","31":"tag-group-of-objects","32":"tag-healthy-eating","33":"tag-ingredient","34":"tag-jar","35":"tag-jug","36":"tag-merchandise","37":"tag-milk","38":"tag-mozzarella","39":"tag-organic","40":"tag-protein","41":"tag-ricotta","42":"tag-set","43":"tag-sour-cream","44":"tag-table","45":"tag-variation","46":"tag-white","47":"tag-wood-material","48":"tag-yellow","49":"tag-yogurt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114433445253556465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}