On 30 May, the EU and Mexico have launched new trade and investment negotiations with the goal to modernize and broaden the scope of the existing 1997 Economic Partnership, Political Coordination and Cooperation Agreement , which developed in a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. It entered into force in October 2000 (trade in goods) and in 2001 (trade in services). The new negotiations should cover intellectual property, including GIs.
With respect to existing treaties between Mexico and the EU on GIs, the 1997 Agreement between the European Community and the United Mexican States on the mutual recognition and protection of designations for spirit drinks is currently in force (See Annex I and Annex II for the list of GIs spirits protected, as amended in 2004). Moreover, being Mexico a member of the WIPO Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration, a number of EU GIs (which countries of origin are also contracting parties of the Lisbon Agreement, namely Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Slovakia) are protected in Mexico via such Agreement. Likewise, a number of Mexican GIs are protected in the above-mentioned EU countries via the Lisbon Agreement .
To have a comprehensive view of all agreements in force (or under negotiations) between the EU and its trade partners, see the oriGIn study .
This summary has been extracted from an “oriGIn Alert”, which is a service reserved exclusively to oriGIn members.
