August 29, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 30, 1424

BRUSSELS, Aug 28: European Union governments on Thursday hammered out a controversial list of 41 regional food and drink brandnames which officials said the bloc wanted to protect through strict new rules in the World Trade Organization.

The list of so-called European “geographical indications” included long-established products such as Roquefort cheese, Parma ham, Champagne and Rioja wine which officials said were being “abused and pirated” by foreign producers.

“We want our names back,” said EU farm policy spokesman Gregor Kreuzhuber, adding that the illegal appropriation of European brand names by foreign producers was costing European farmers millions of euros in lost sales.

The EU move, however, is expected to further complicate WTO discussions on a new global trade liberalization package known as the Doha development agenda, launched in the Qatari capital two years ago.

World trade ministers are set to meet in Cancun, Mexico, next month to review slow progress in the talks which are scheduled to be completed at the end of next year.

The United States, Canada, Australia and many developing countries are strongly opposed to the EU stand on tougher rules for regional food brands. They say the move is an EU ploy to keep out competing foreign goods and reinforce Europe’s stranglehold on world farm markets.

But “this is not about protection, it is about fairness,” Kreuzhuber insisted.

Developing countries which have well-known regional trademarks like India’s Darjeeling tea, Guatemala’s Antigua coffee and Morocco’s Argan oil would also gain from the EU move, he said.

Officials said the EU wanted to protect European exporters of products whose reputation and/or characteristics and quality were linked to their “unique geographical origin due to a particular geographical environment.” The current list covering 41 products exported by the 15 EU states would be extended later to include brand names in use in its ten future member states in central and eastern Europe, they added.

Europe also wants a worldwide register of geographical indications which must be strictly protected.

EU farm chief Pascal Lamy has warned EU vows to protect 41 food brand that Europeans are extremely serious about WTO protection for their famous geographic names, saying agricultural reform talks cannot move forward without agreement on the issue.

But opponents say the WTO has not agreed to extend protection for what are called “geographical indications” to products beyond wines and spirits. They are adamant that the EU is seeking to set up a worldwide ‘monopoly’ for its products.

The WTO is about breaking down barriers to world trade, not erecting new ones, say critics.

But Europeans say they want extra protection for farmers now that international trade negotiations are forcing producers to rely less on government assistance and subsidies.

“We are telling our farmers to move away from quantity and concentrate on quality, and you can’t tell them to concentrate on quality if you don’t give them the possibility to defend this quality internationally,” said an EU trade official.

Backing the EU stance are Guatemalan coffee farmers and Indian rice growers who say they want better WTO protection for their regional brands.

The WTO clash has at its root in efforts by immigrants — mainly but not only from Europe — who moved to the US, Canada and Australia in the last century and started reproducing and marketing products such as Parmesan cheese or Czech Budweiser beer made by their forefathers at home.

But home country producers say such products are at best poor copies and at worst low-quality counterfeits “stealing” a name to mislead consumers and snatch markets from the genuine item.