ARLINGTON, VA – Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) Senior Director Shawna Morris testified today before the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) Special 301 Subcommittee on the historic progress made in protecting common food and beverage names—like “parmesan,” “feta,” and “bologna”—and the critical need to build on this momentum in ongoing and upcoming trade negotiations.

CCFN submitted comprehensive comments to the agency in January, documenting the groundbreaking achievements of the past year while highlighting key markets where continued engagement is essential to preserve U.S. export opportunities. In her testimony, Morris emphasized that 2025 represented a watershed moment in the protection of common names for U.S. producers, driven primarily by the Trump Administration’s proactive and results-oriented trade agenda.

“After years of uphill battles, the past year marked a real breakthrough,” Morris stated. “Thanks to this Administration’s proactive trade agenda, multiple key markets around the world have now committed to adopt meaningful protections for common names. These are not symbolic gestures. They are concrete, enforceable commitments that preserve market access and give American exporters certainty. They ensure that common names cannot simply be rebranded as exclusive European property and quietly removed from store shelves.”

Reciprocal trade agreements signed with seven countries to date, including markets like Taiwan, Malaysia and Guatemala, represent the best examples of this progress, establishing unprecedented provisions that guard against the monopolization of widely used food and beverage names. All seven agreements include comprehensive lists of generic terms that trading partners have committed to protect and ground-breaking due process protections governing how partners must handle GI applications.

While celebrating these achievements, Morris also underlined the importance of maintaining momentum as the European Union continues to use trade agreements to confiscate common names around the world.

“We must build on the foundation laid in 2025—replicating these gold-standard protections, insisting on transparency and fairness, and using every available tool to defend common names.”

The public hearing is part of USTR’s annual Special 301 review, which identifies countries that are inadequately defending intellectual property rights and informs the Administration’s engagement on intellectual property issues for the coming year.

ARLINGTON, VA – The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) praised Chairman GT Thompson and the House Agriculture Committee for including the Safeguarding American Food and Export Trade Yields (SAFETY) Act in its Farm Bill legislative text released today.

Co-sponsored in the House by Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-SD, Jim Costa, D-CA, Michelle Fischbach, R-MN, and Jimmy Panetta, D-CA, and in the Senate by Sens. John Thune, R-SD, Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Tina Smith, D-MN, the bipartisan SAFETY Act would establish a long-term policy directive for USDA to partner with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to prioritize the protection of common names like “parmesan” and “bologna” in international trade negotiations. Enactment of the SAFETY Act would offer an important complement to the Administration’s decisive actions over the past year to protect U.S. exporters’ rights to use common food names.

“For too long, the European Union has weaponized geographical indication policies to tilt the playing field against U.S. producers,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “Recent trade negotiations have finally reversed that trend. The Farm Bill language ensures that this policy continues to be a priority for the U.S. government for years to come. We appreciate Chairman Thompson, the House Agriculture Committee and our bipartisan Congressional champions of the SAFETY Act for their leadership in sending a clear signal that the United States needs to establish a lasting policy ensuring our producers do not lose market access and opportunities in the future.”

Since 2009, the European Union has leveraged trade negotiations and its geographical indication (GI) system to claim widely used food names for the exclusive benefit of its own producers—effectively restricting competition and monopolizing certain products in key markets. For American farmers and manufacturers, this has meant lost export opportunities abroad and costly legal and commercial disputes at home. In recent years, the EU has intensified these efforts by pressuring third-party countries to adopt EU-style GI protections as part of their trade agreements, further limiting the ability of U.S. producers to compete globally.

Castaneda continued, “When foreign governments adopt restrictive GI policies under EU pressure, American producers pay the price. The SAFETY Act is about supporting current efforts to establish a clear U.S. government policy focused on ensuring that widely used food names remain available to those who have earned the right to use them.”

ARLINGTON, VA — The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) commended signing late yesterday of a landmark trade agreement between the United States and Taiwan that will eliminate tariffs on U.S. dairy products and preempt nontariff barriers that could otherwise limit the full potential of bilateral dairy trade.

Taiwan is the third-largest fluid milk destination for U.S. exports, and this agreement represents a transformative step forward for the growing market. By securing comprehensive tariff reductions for U.S. dairy products and incorporating meaningful commitments to ensure nontariff measures do not derail trade, the deal positions U.S. dairy suppliers to compete on a level playing field and expand their presence in one of Asia’s most dynamic food markets.

“Taiwan is a trusted partner and a high-value market for U.S. dairy,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “This agreement improves our competitiveness compared to other suppliers and provides assurances that nontariff barriers will not hinder the expansion of U.S. dairy exports. USDEC looks forward to continuing work with the Taiwanese government and the domestic industry to increase dairy consumption and grow the United States’ contribution to supplying Taiwan’s fluid milk and other dairy needs.”

The agreement builds on strong industry-to-industry collaboration between the United States and Taiwan. Last year, NMPF and USDEC representatives traveled to the market to advocate for dairy’s prioritization in the negotiations and deepen engagement with local stakeholders. While there, USDEC and NMPF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Dairy Association of Taiwan to strengthen market development and information exchange efforts.

“The agreement with Taiwan builds on the incredible momentum we’ve seen from the Administration in securing new trade agreements around the world,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “Each deal to reduce barriers and expand market access strengthens American dairy farms and the communities they support.”

“Taiwan is an important market for the United States, and the commitments to protect common names included in this agreement preempt third countries like the European Union from abusing intellectual property tools to monopolize generic terms and take away U.S. export opportunities,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “We cannot thank Ambassador Greer, Ambassador Callahan and the entire negotiating team enough for prioritizing this issue and ensuring our exporters can continue using the terms known by consumers around the world.”

NMPF, USDEC and CCFN look forward to working closely with U.S. and Taiwanese officials to ensure swift implementation of the agreement and to fully realize its benefits for dairy producers, exporters, and consumers on both sides of the Pacific.

ARLINGTON, VA — The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) celebrated the signing of a U.S.–Argentina Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and Investment late yesterday that includes tariff and nontariff barrier concessions for U.S. dairy exports.

Argentina commits in the trade deal to eliminate tariffs that currently range up to 28 percent on select dairy products, including milk powders, dairy proteins, lactose, and other dairy ingredients. The agreement also establishes a 1,000 metric ton quota for certain U.S. cheeses. In addition to tariff reductions, Argentina agrees to prevent several nontariff barriers, including refraining from imposing processing facility registration requirements on U.S. dairy exports and providing explicit protections for 39 common cheese names like “parmesan”.

“The commitments secured in the U.S.-Argentina reciprocal trade deal bring new, real opportunities for our dairy exports to South America,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “USDEC appreciates USTR’s hard work in securing agreements that lower tariffs and meaningfully address nontariff barriers, particularly those to protect common cheese names. We look forward to building our market presence in Argentina as the agreement is implemented.”

“Trade deals like this one bring dairy farmers promise for the future,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “Dairy farms operate 365 days a year, and the U.S. negotiating team is keeping pace to secure new market access. NMPF will continue to work with the Administration as all the reciprocal trade agreements are translated into real results on the ground for our farmers.”

“Argentina’s commitment to protect 39 common cheese names and 10 generic meat terms could not have come at a more important time,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “As the European Union is advancing toward implementation of its trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc of countries, our ability to use common names is increasingly at risk. We cannot thank Ambassador Greer and the USTR negotiating team enough for the foresight and leadership in protecting U.S. exporters’ rights.”

The trade deal follows reciprocal trade agreements that the United States signed recently with El Salvador and Guatemala last week that included commitments to prevent barriers to U.S. dairy exports. USDEC and NMPF will continue to work with the U.S. government as the reciprocal trade negotiations progress to identify and address impediments to dairy trade and grow U.S. export opportunities.