On
28 June, the EU and Mercosur reached a political deal for a trade agreement . Concerning GIs, 355 EU products’ names will be protected the agreement in the 4 Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and 1 in 3 of them (Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). Given the high number of oppositions filed by third parties in the context of the procedure opened in the framework of the negotiations, there are several limitations to full GIs protection (mainly grandfathering clauses and phasing out periods of pre-existing uses).
oriGIn is evaluating each of them with its EU members concerned. In this respect, one positive element is the fact that the agreement itself states that the lists of prior users in Mercosur countries will be made public. This is crucial point which will facilitate the agreement future implementation, and follows a request to the Commission raised by oriGIn. Both sides will now perform a legal revision of the agreed text to come up with the final version.
This summary has been extracted from an “oriGIn Alert”, which is a service reserved exclusively to oriGIn members. Click here to join oriGIn
For more information about bilateral and plurilateral agreements covering GIs see the concerning category in the section Policy and Advocacy
