ARLINGTON, VA – The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) celebrated the release today of a ground-breaking new model for protecting common food names in international trade. The U.S. government announced the conclusion of new trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia; both deals contain top of the line protections for common food names.

In addition to the completed trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia, the Administration also announced the conclusion of trade framework agreements with Thailand and Vietnam, the former of which specifically mentions finalizing commitments on geographical indications.

“For far too long, producers relying on common names to market their products have faced protectionist attacks driven by the European Union to harm fair competition,” said Jaime Castaneda, Executive Director of CCFN. “These new agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia finally fight fire with fire by directly protecting at-risk common names and establishing detailed due process safeguards for common names as countries consider geographical indication applications. CCFN applauds the Trump Administration for its excellent work in delivering these vital reforms so needed by U.S. producers to ensure they have a level playing field internationally. We look forward to closely collaborating with the U.S. negotiating team as they now work to turn the trade frameworks with Vietnam and Thailand into similarly successful results.”

CCFN was founded in 2012 with one main goal: to ensure that everybody has the right to common names when marketing well-known foods and beverages. To further that objective, CCFN has worked with leaders in agriculture, trade and intellectual property from around the world to promote a commonsense approach that protects both legitimate GIs and generic food names. Additional information can be found at www.commonfoodnames.com.