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ARLINGTON, VA – Statement from Jaime Castaneda, Executive Director of the Consortium for Common Food Names:

“We commend Chairman Thompson and the House Ag Committee for advancing a bipartisan Farm Bill this week that provides vital support to U.S. exporters’ rights to use common food and beverage names. The bill’s wholesale inclusion of the SAFETY Act led by Reps. Johnson, Costa, Fischbach and Panetta, would establish a long-term, proactive U.S. policy for our exporters to continue using terms like ‘parmesan,’ ‘bologna’ and ‘chateau’ in markets worldwide. This important legislation builds on the Administration’s impressive work to date to secure explicit common name protections in the Agreements on Reciprocal Trade and is a key tool in fighting against the European Union’s bad faith attempts to monopolize generic terms. CCFN urges Congress to build on the momentum and quickly move this commonsense policy into law.”