TTIP free trade agreement between Europe and the United States and risks to European designations of origin
Question for oral answer to the Commission
The mandate given by the EU Council to the Commission setting out guidelines for negotiating the TTIP the free-trade agreement between Europe and the United States has recently been made public.
Food producers are quite justifiably concerned at the adverse effects of that this agreement will have on European standards of excellence.
While in Europe PDO/PGI product designations are governed by strict specifications regarding quality and origin, in the United States they represent no more than ‘common names’ that may be freely used without any restrictions. In response to the legitimate concerns of European producers regarding the misleading use of designations, American producers have founded a Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) to defend the marketing of ‘Wisconsin Asiago’, Parmesan, Brie or Camembert, making the protection of European products on the market extremely difficult.
While the Council text reads: ‘The goal of the negotiations will be to reconcile the EU and US approaches to rules of origin’, the underlying motivations behind each of these approaches are diametrically opposed.
In view of this:
How does the Commission intend to ensure absolute protection, without exemption, for European designations of origin that are at risk of being stripped of their legal economic and qualitative value, with disastrous consequences for the entire European food production sector?