POSITIVE MEETING OF THE CONSORTIUMS FOR PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO CHEESE AND PARMA HAM AND THE US GOVERNMENT TO DISCUSS THE PROTECTION OF PDO PRODUCTS INTERNATIONALLY

Parma, 9 February 2005 - Positive meeting of the Consortiums for Parma Ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese and the representatives of the US Government to discuss the protection and safeguard of PDO products at an international level and during WTO negotiations.

The purpose of the meeting was that of awakening the sceptical wing of the WTO to the advantages deriving from an additional protection of geographical indications at an international level.

The following people took part in the meeting:

- Deborah Lashley-Johnson, Attorney Advisor U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
- Perky Ramroth, Industry Analyst, Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau (TTB Office)
- Geoffrey Wiggin, Minister Counsellor for Agricultural Affairs, US Embassy in Rome
- Kirk Ressler, US Consul, Consulate General Milan
- Angelica Guerrieri, Economic Division Officer, Consulate General Milan


It is worth noticing that the American Government maintains that the legislation on marks is more than sufficient to protect Geographical Indications at an international level, thereby rejecting the European request to establish a specific system to protect them.

During the meeting the Consortiums demonstrated, via specific and practical examples, the weaknesses of this system and the absence of a real protection for their products internationally. For this reason, the Consortiums' multilateral proposal is that of establishing an autonomous protection system with regards to the legislation on marks by extending to other designations of origin the protection granted to wines and spirits by the Trips Agreements.

"In the US, the protection on markets - declared Leo Bertozzi, director of the Consortium for Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese - is applied via a system of registration of marks, but with regards to PDO products this same system has weaknesses. Indeed, the registration with US offices requires audits to be carried out by the party registering a trademark. Therefore, the control activity by a public body is missing. Furthermore, as for Parmigiano-Reggiano, we registered the designation, but we have to protect the use of each one of the two words ("Parmigiano" and "Reggiano") via individual registrations, and this is objectively absurd and it implies a waste of resources and energy. Indeed, US businesses maintain that the products involved are different, and this forces us to deal with continuous suits. The meeting was very useful because, thanks to a visit of a cheese dairy, the American delegation could get to know our production system based on an extensive network of dairies rooted in the territory. Furthermore, we made them understand that we do not want to disregard the trademark system, but the US should recognise the need for a specific system for the protection of PDOs. Therefore, a fair solution for both parties, protecting both producers and consumers is necessary".

"Considering the difficulties and apparently irreconcilable positions emerged during the WTO negotiations, we deemed it indispensable to identify a non-institutional context where we could develop a more straightforward and transparent dialogue on the controversial issue of the international protection of PDO products - stated Stefano Fanti, Director of the Consortium for Parma Ham. We thought this would be the best way to share - going beyond every "ideological" position - the actual problems that Parma Ham and other PDOs are dealing with on non-Community markets, but also to understand the needs of other parties in order to assess and examine together all possible solutions. I think that the meeting has certainly achieved a positive result and that the parties involved have concluded with an increased willingness to work together to identify joint solutions to overcome the difficulties faced by all the sector operators" declares Stefano Fanti, Director of the Consortium for Parma Ham".