April 26, 2018 by Chris

EU-Mexico Deal Poised to Hurt US Dairy

Feedstuffs reports that “Mexico appears poised to enact new restrictions on the use of common cheese names such as ‘Parmesan,’ ‘Muenster’ and ‘Feta’ for products sold in Mexico — a development that runs counter to existing trade agreements with the U.S.”

We are deeply disappointed that Mexico has limited U.S. access by restricting the use of common food names that have been used in the Mexican market for years. This undermines the rule of law and the value of the market access terms the U.S. has long had in place with Mexico[.] While we are pleased that Mexico did not go so far as to grant full market access to the EU for dairy products, Mexico is essentially backtracking on its mantra of ‘doing no harm’ in the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) context. We hope as the details are hammered out that Mexico carefully weighs the impact of its remaining decisions pertaining to geographical indications (GIs) and common names.

We’ll be sure to follow this story.