Legislation Introduced to Use Common Names for Ag Products
Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced the Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports (SAVE) Act, which will amend the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to "include and define a list of common names for ag commodities, food products, and terms used in marketing and packaging of products," Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., announced in a press release last week. In addition, SAVE also will direct the secretary of agriculture and the U.S. trade representative to negotiate with "our foreign trading partners to defend the right to use common names for ag commodities in those same foreign markets," the press release said.
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The bill is led in the House by Johnson; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., and Jimmy Panetta,D-Calif.; and in the Senate by John Thune, R-S.D.; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; and Tina Smith, D-Minn.
The bill was drafted because the EU has been attempting to restrict the use of common names for food products and ag commodities in marketing and packaging of certain agricultural products, the release said. The authors of the bill consider this to be "unfair trade practices" being implemented "under the guise of protecting geographic indicators." Previous trade deals included certain protections for European geographic indications (see 1805150057).
“For years, the European Union has abused geographical indicators as a non-tariff trade barrier, limiting U.S. agriculture export opportunities simply because they rely on using common food names that have been established for decades,” Fishbach said in the press release. "The SAVE Act protects common names to ensure U.S. agriculture products can be sold worldwide."