SCHUMER: NY CHEESE EXPORTS TO CHINA POISED FOR GROWTH, BUT PENDING TRADE DEAL BETWEEN CHINA & EU THREATENS TO PREVENT NY CHEESE INDUSTRY FROM USING COMMONLY-USED NAMES – SENATOR URGES FED TRADE NEGOTIATORS TO STEP IN AND PRESERVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR NYS CHEESE EXPORTS TO CHINA
Earlier This Month, Feds Were Able To Clear The Way For Several Major Upstate NY Cheese Companies To Ensure Access To China; But EU is Reported to Be Seeking To Block Popular Cheese Names From Entering Chinese Market As Part Of Deal China & EU Are Negotiating Schumer Has Long Fought EU Effort To Exclusively Claim Commonly-Used Cheese Names Like ‘Muenster’ Or ‘Parmesan’ – Could Affect Cheese Producers in Allegany, Schenectady, Rockland, Livingston & Erie Counties Schumer Urges USTR & USDA To Defend NY Cheese Producers Against Latest EU Efforts to Limit Exports
Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called on United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Thomas Vilsack to defend New York State cheese producers against the European Union’s (EU) latest reported effort to limit the export of U.S. cheese. The EU is currently negotiating a trade agreement with China that could prevent non-EU products with names that have geographical significance – like “muenster,” “parmesan,” or “feta” – to be sold to China. Schumer noted that, just this month, USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were able to get the Chinese government to agree to continue imports of U.S. dairy products such as cheeses, including those made by a significant number of New York dairy companies. This effort by the EU, however, threatens to undermine that recent progress. Therefore, Schumer is urging Ambassador Froman and Secretary Vilsack, who are responsible for protecting American export interests abroad, to step in and protect U.S. cheese interests in China.
“Shoring up access to China for Upstate New York cheese producers is allowing them to take advantage of an incredible opportunity, and I commend the work the USDA and FDA have done to ensure that we will be able to continue to export a wide range of dairy products to China. But the EU’s latest attempts to block our cheese products from entering that market are troubling and unfair,” said Schumer. “The EU does not and should not be able to monopolize the use of traditional cheese names like ‘muenster’ and ‘parmesan,’ and Ambassador Froman and Secretary Vilsack should step in to prevent this from happening. I have said it before, and I will say it again: muenster is muenster, no matter how you slice it. We must do all we can to protect the cheese industry from harmful and unfair free trade deals, so that we can continue to grow this vibrant industry in Upstate New York.”
“The U.S. Dairy Export Council appreciates the devotion that Sen. Schumer has shown to safeguarding the use of common food names,” said Tom Suber, President of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “In the dairy sector alone, this is an issue that impacts opportunities for growth and export sales that support jobs in both the dairy farming and dairy processing sectors. Preserving market access avenues for U.S. products is particularly important in fast-growing markets like China where cheese consumption is just starting to take off.”
New York State dairy producers that recently secured their access to the Chinese market include: Empire Cheese (Cuba; Allegany County), Friendship Dairy (Friendship; Allegany County), BelGioioso Cheese (Schenectady), Icco Cheese (Orangeburg; Rockland), Kraft Foods (Avon; Livingston), NutraBlend (Lancaster; Erie), O-AT-KA Milk Products (Batavia; Genesee), and Sorrento (Buffalo; Erie). But companies like these could be cut off from exporting cheeses to China under cheese names like – “muenster,” “parmesan,” “feta,” etc. – if the EU succeeds at claiming common cheese names. Schumer argued that this would be a huge hit to upstate dairy farmers who need to expand markets for their milk through the sale of high quality cheeses to fast-growing global markets. Efforts to restrict the use of common food names must be prevented in trade negotiations. This trade deal between the EU and China is expected to be completed before the end of 2014.
Schumer explained that, in several recent trade negotiations, the EU has been trying to claim cheese names based on geographic locations, in the same way that the EU has argued that champagne can only be sold as ‘champagne’ if produced in the Champagne region of France. Among the names sought by EU are: muenster, feta, parmesan, fontina, gorgonzola and others. Schumer noted that he and Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) authored a letter to Vilsack and Froman in March 2014 urging them to oppose the “EU’s gratuitous use of geographical indications as a protectionist measure.” This letter was co-signed by a bi-partisan group of 55 Senators.
Schumer warned that if the EU succeeds in claiming those names, New York producers would no longer be able to export cheeses with their current names. According to Schumer, this pending agreement between China and the EU could be particularly damaging for New York cheese producers since it is a growing market, and the size of China’s population, as well as the increased presence of cheese in the diet of many Chinese people, make it a one-of-a-kind opportunity. It is reported that the EU is pursuing the same types of restrictions in China that it has secured in other markets around the world. If China grants those requests, New York cheese producers would have to export the cheese under a different name, which would significantly devalue the product, or forego the sales entirely. The EU is currently in negotiations with many other Asian nations, and an overly restrictive agreement on geographical indications could prevent U.S. exporters from selling to those countries using those commonly-used names.
A copy of Senator Schumer’s letter – co-signed by 54 other Senators – to the USDA and USTR appears below:
Dear Secretary Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Froman:
We commend your past work to fight the growing geographical indication (GI) restrictions promoted by the European Union (EU). This trade barrier is of great concern to dairy and other food manufacturers in our states. On their behalf, we urge you to continue to push back against the EU's efforts to restrict our cheese exports, particularly to nations with which we already have free trade agreements. In addition, we urge you to make clear to your EU counterparts that the U.S. will reject any proposal in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations now underway that would restrict in any way the ability of US producers to use common cheese names.
In country after country, the EU has been using its free trade agreements (FTAs) to persuade its trading partners to impose barriers to U.S. exports under the guise of protection for its geographical indications. This trade-damaging practice is concerning anywhere, but it is most deeply troubling where the U.S. has an established FTA or has been actively in the process of negotiating a new agreement. For example, Canada agreed as part of its recently concluded FTA with the EU to impose new restrictions on the use of "feta" and other common cheese names. Common names for products such as "feta" are clearly generic in Canada, as they are in many other countries. These restrictions not only threaten harm to the companies currently involved in the Canadian market, but they would also impair market access for U.S. dairy products that we are now attempting to secure under ongoing trade negotiations. Similar trade barriers are cropping up throughout Latin America as well and are under discussion in many Asian countries involved in negotiations with the EU.
Reportedly, the EU now seeks to more directly impair U.S. competition by imposing restrictions on the use of common food names through TTIP. In the states that we represent, many small or medium-sized family owned farms and firms could have their business unfairly restricted by the EU's push to use geographical indications as a barrier to dairy trade and competition. As we begin to engage in TTIP negotiations that are ultimately intended to bring about a better economic climate on both sides of the Atlantic by lowering barriers to trade, we strongly oppose the EU's gratuitous use of GIs as a protectionist measure.
We ask that USTR and USDA continue to work aggressively to ensure the EU's GI efforts on commonly used cheese names do not impair U.S. businesses' ability to compete domestically or internationally and that you make this a top priority through both official TTIP and bilateral negotiations.