Posted on 09/10/2003 11:40:29 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
If the European Union gets its way during talks at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico, this week, American companies will no longer be allowed to use such seemingly generic names as bologna, mozzarella, cognac and champagne on its consumer goods.
Calling U.S. firms "pirates," the EU seeks exclusive rights for its 15-member nations to names of consumer goods associated with European regions.
Endless examples include Bordeaux, Chablis, Chianti, feta, parmesan, romano and Roquefort.
"EU producers are losing billions a year because non-European producers are free-riding on the reputation of European-quality products," Franz Fischler, the EU's farm commissioner told the USA Today.
"I'd say 'baloney,' but you realize that's a name they want back, too," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, retorted to the paper, in reference to the list of 41 names the EU asserts have been stolen.
European trade officials want the 146-nation WTO to create a global registry of these names, thereby outlawing their use for goods produced outside the European regions associated with the names.
U.S. negotiators predict if the WTO agrees to the restriction, U.S. companies will have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in new labeling and marketing.
Goodlatte told the USA Today, the 41 products would be the tip of the iceberg. He said the EU's own protected-names list contains 4,200 wines and spirits and 600 meats, cheeses, olives and other foods.
The paper reported Kraft, which sells 60 million pounds of grated parmesan each year, has already born the wrath of the Europeans over a name. Last year, a European court ruled it could no longer use the word "parmesan" in EU countries, forcing the company to switch to the awkward-sounding "pamesello."
"Parmesan cheese is not on the tip of everyone's tongue because of anything anyone in Parma, Italy, ever did. It's because dairy processors, led by Kraft, have spent tens of millions of dollars promoting this terminology so that the vast majority of Americans would put a can in their refrigerator," the paper quoted Goodlatte as saying.
The EU-U.S. food fight is expected to be intense.
Meanwhile, this week's ambitious WTO agenda also includes continuing efforts to dismantle farm subsidies and tariffs around the world that date back to World War II. Trade ministers grappled with the issue in two previous meetings in Seattle, Wa., and Doha, Qatar, but failed to address the opposing needs of developed and developing nations.
Trade experts say the contentious issues on the table could spell the demise for the global body.
"The WTO is moribund," Peter Rosset, director of the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy, and a vocal critic of the WTO, told Knight Ridder. "Nothing is going to come out of Cancun except the message that this is the third meeting in which nothing happened for a dead-in-the-water organization."
How about ''American baloney or Italian baloney -- 45 different gov'ts in 45 years can't be wrong! Er, uh, how's that again?''
Or, on a more strident note: ''Feta! It's what's for brain cells!''. Or, "Bordeaux! It's two 'L's short of a whorehouse.''
In short, p*ss on the Euroturds, the vomitous clots of the E.S.S.R. Make fun of them at every chance!
Endless examples include Bordeaux, Chablis, Chianti, feta, parmesan, romano and Roquefort.
This from the nations that thought some US citizens were foolish for renaming their french fries "freedom fries".
The leftists who continue to wrongly bash the Bush administration over the fries will never hear of this food fight over the same "national" pride.
The double standard continues.
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