News & Resources

ARLINGTON, VA – The Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) congratulates Ambassador Katherine Tai on her confirmation as the new United States Trade Representative.

“CCFN applauds the Senate’s confirmation of Ambassador Tai as the new U.S. Trade Representative,” stated Jaime Castaneda, Executive Director of CCFN.  “Ambassador Tai brings exceptional experience and strategic insights to the important work ahead of her. The global challenges facing U.S. producers that rely on common food and beverage terms to market their Made-In-America products around the world are mounting. CCFN looks forward to working closely with Ambassador Tai and her team at USTR to more effectively preserve U.S. market access rights for these products.”

In response to questions from Senators at her confirmation hearing last week, Tai noted that the U.S. secured historic protections for common food names in the USMCA. If confirmed to be USTR, Tai answered, Senators have her commitment to build on that success and to prioritize the use of common food names during future trade negotiations in addition to removing other non-tariff barriers to farmers and ranchers.

“We are eager to work alongside Ms. Tai and the USTR team to ensure the rights of U.S. food producers, retailers and consumers to market and purchase commonly-named products are not further restricted by deceiving EU trade practices,” Castaneda emphasized.