On 2 May, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiating documents (reflecting the negotiating positions of the US and the EU) were made available by Greenpeace: https://ttip-leaks.org/
With respect to GIs (see documents 16 – Tactical State of Play), such documents confirm how the parties remain quite far apart on such a sensitive issue, with the US not having yet formalized a concrete proposal (the EU proposal on GIs is available http://www.origin-gi.com/230-at-the-international-level/5552-anti-counterfaiting-trade-agreement-acta.html ).
More specifically on wine, the EU strongly supports a comprehensive discipline on wine and spirits based on the incorporation of the existing bilateral agreements in the TTIP, as well as the elimination of the possibility for US producers to use the 17 EU wine names (so-called “semi-generics”) listed in Annex II of the 2006 Wine Agreement. The US reiterated its opposition to the incorporation of wine rules in TTIP (in such a case, wine rules would be subject to the solid TTIP dispute resolution mechanisms) and to the EU request on “semi-generics”.
On spirits, the EU presented its counterproposal for the annex on labeling provisions on spirits, based on the joint position of the EU and US industries. The two sides are working on a consolidated text based on the EU and US proposals.
