News & Alerts

On the Radar

Australian Producers Brace for EU Trade Agreement – The Australian food industry – particularly the dairy industry – has concerns about how common food names will fare in upcoming trade negotiations with the EU. The media has given the issue good coverage – and the Australian food industry is spreading the message about the threat to common names. Read more

Wall Street Journal: EU Rules Create Consumer Confusion – CCFN provided information for “When U.S. Cheese Goes Overseas, It Needs a Fake ID - ‘Parmesan’ becomes ‘Sarmesan’ to comply with European Union rules in some countries, while customers wonder, ‘What sort of cheese is it?’”. The article notes, “With use of the term feta now restricted to the cheese from Greece, producers in other countries who have been making a similar cheese for decades have had to think up new names. ‘It’s the F-word we can’t say,’ said Theis Brøgger, from Danish co-op Arla Foods.” Read more

Uruguay Eloquently Exposes EU Hypocrisy on Danbo – In a statement to the World Trade Organization in March, Uruguay protested the EU’s decision last fall to register the term “danbo” as a geographical indication despite its global production and existence of an international standard for the product. Uruguay noted that its interest in danbo stems from efforts of the Danish government itself, which in the 1960s began sponsoring and promoting various types of training in dairy production. Read more

U.S. Administration Calls Out the EU on Exclusionary GI Policies This spring the U.S. Trade Representative Office (USTR) released two annual reports that detail the threat from the EU’s abuse of GI policy. CCFN provided background and comments to USTR; the policy statements help direct trade priorities of the U.S. government. Read more