Associated Press | By Frederic J. Frommer | 23 May 2003
An eggplant Parmesan sandwich made from American ingredients would cease to be an eggplant Parmesan sandwich if the European Union gets its way.
Under the EU's proposed "global registry of protected names," only cheese from Parma, Italy, could be called Parmesan. Hundreds of other food products would also have to come from their respective regions of origin, from feta cheese to kalamata olives.
"These products are usually high quality, made regionally, and are very important for rural development," said Gerry Kiely, counselor of agriculture for the European Union delegation in Washington. "We don't want them to be usurped by multinationals or whatever. These products are usually made by small producers who are very dependent on them."
But American producers are also dependent on the names, said Sarah Thorn, director of international relations for the Grocery Manufacturers Association of America, which is working to defeat the proposal.
"It costs billions to make, market and brand a product," Thorn said. "For our companies, the trademark is the most significant thing about a product."
Essentially, the EU wants to take its own list of roughly 600 protected food names, which applies to member states, and take it globally. That list includes about 150 different types of cheeses, most from France, Italy, Greece and Spain, although the EU hasn't submitted a formal proposal yet.
In Europe, for example, only producers in Greece can call their product feta, even though more feta is produced in Denmark, which has challenged the rule. Other cheeses on the list include Asiago (Italy), Camembert (France) and Gouda (The Netherlands).
The World Trade Organization already recognizes such "geographical indications" for wine and spirits. But the EU wants to extend this protection to agriculture products.
U.S. officials call Europe's proposal a thinly-veiled attempt to subsidize European farmers. The EU will push its proposal at the next round of World Trade Organization meetings in Mexico in September, while the United States will press for reductions in European agriculture subsidies.
The impasse comes in the midst of another trade battle between the two sides of the Atlantic. Earlier this month, the United States filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the EU's ban on genetically modified food.
Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics, said that if the EU succeeds with its global registry idea, it would likely push for licensing arrangements rather than an outright ban on the names.
"A lot of money is at stake - hundreds of millions or billions of dollars," Hufbauer said.
Eileen Eichten Carlson, manager for Eichten's Cheese in Center City, Minn., called the proposal "ludicrous."
"There are standards of cheese all over the world," she said. "A Gouda is a Gouda, a Parmesan is a Parmesan - they're made the same way. You'd have a Parmesan that you couldn't call a Parmesan."
"Maybe I should make it Center City cheese," she quipped.
Many of the cheeses sold in the United States were brought over from Europe decades ago, said Greg Frazier, senior vice president for international affairs at the International Dairy Foods Association.
The Grande Cheese Co. in Lomira, Wis., for example, was founded by an Italian immigrant in 1927.
"These names are generic," said Grande Cheese's vice president of technology, Tom Everson. "The standard of identities for cheese were written in the 1940s."
If the EU succeeds, what would the company rename its Parmesan cheese?
"We'd have to go with 'hard-grating cheese,' " Everson said.
Officials with the U.S. Trade Representative say that the United States has a procedure that allows producers to trademark food products that are truly unique to a particular region. Examples include Roquefort cheese, Swiss chocolate, Stilton cheese and Parma ham.
But the EU's Kiely said it's too much to expect small producers to obtain and defend trademarks in other countries.
"These individual producers would have to monitor markets, and go to court if somebody was usurping their product," Kiely said. "And they're not in a position to do that - they're small operators."
Kiely also rejected the argument that many of the food names Europe wants to protect are generic.
"We have a very comprehensive system," he said. "For example, we have no protection for cheddar. But we don't consider the likes of Parmigiano to be a generic product."Associated Press:
