ARLINGTON, VA — The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) praised Friday’s signing of a U.S.–Ecuador agreement on reciprocal trade. The agreement would improve export opportunities for U.S. dairy products in a market that has been plagued by restrictive tariffs and nontariff trade barriers.

The deal is slated to eliminate tariffs on several U.S. dairy products; recognize U.S. regulatory oversight, including commitments to eliminate facility listing requirements and accept dairy certificates issued by U.S. regulatory authorities; overhaul Ecuador’s burdensome import licensing system for agricultural products; and protect 40 common cheese names like “parmesan.” U.S. dairy exporters have faced challenges in these areas in this market.

“Ecuador has long been a difficult market for U.S. dairy exporters to crack,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of USDEC. “This agreement puts in place the strong nontariff disciplines needed for U.S. dairy exporters of ingredients and various cheeses to make headway in growing their sales to Ecuador, while also improving the tariff landscape in this market.”

“Ambassador Greer, Ambassador Callahan and the USTR team have racked up yet another win for American dairy farmers with this Ecuador agreement,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO of NMPF. “With an unprecedented investment in U.S. dairy manufacturing capacity, deals like this are vital to making it easier for international buyers to source the great products our dairy companies are making.”

“The European Union has been working aggressively in Ecuador for several years now to pursue market restrictions impacting sales opportunities for both local product and other non-EU products,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of CCFN. “Our thanks to the USTR team, in particular Ambassador Callahan, for delivering strong common names protection that will provide greater opportunities to sell U.S. products like ‘parmesan’ and ‘bologna’ in a growing region of Latin America.”

The agreement is the tenth trade deal secured to date by the Administration that includes new market access for U.S. dairy products. USDEC, NMPF and CCFN remain committed to working with the Administration to support implementation of the agreement’s provisions.

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.”

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.