Washington Insider --Wednesday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

Japan to Place New PEDv Sanitary Requirements on US, Canada Live Pig Imports

Live pigs imported into Japan from the US and Canada will be subject to new certification requirements to prevent the spread of livestock disease, Japan told the World Trade Organization Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures July 28.

The new requirements are to combat the spread of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), a viral infection in pigs that causes severe dehydration, Japan said in a "notification of emergency measures." The disease causes significant mortality rates, particularly among piglets.

Japan will require exporters to certify that their swine come from facilities in which there has been no clinical evidence of PEDv for at least 12 months.

The exported pigs also must test negative for PEDv during their period of pre-export isolation and inspection.

In June, the EU imposed its own PEDv testing requirements on imports from US and Canadian hog farms.

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Russia Mulls Ban on US Chicken Over Salmonella Contamination Concerns

The Russian government agency overseeing food safety may ban US chicken imports over salmonella concerns, citing contamination with the food-borne bacteria. The agency also is investigating foreign supplies of cheese to McDonald's restaurants in Russia, citing concerns over the presence of antibiotics.

Officials are now conducting a risk assessment to determine the extent to which the US domestic cases of salmonella pose a threat to Russia via imports, Aleksei Alekseenko, assistant to the director of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, or Rosselkhoznadzor, told Russian state media on July 28. The official noted the outbreak of salmonella at the facility of chicken producer Foster Farms and the widespread nature of the problem across the US.

The risk assessment should take up to three days, and a ban, if approved, would be enforced within the following two to three weeks, according to the official.

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Washington Insider: EU Pushes Hard on GI Protections

One of the problems with negotiating with the EU is that they push so hard to keep all their protections and increase yours as the process continues.

For example, key EU officials announced early on that many of their "social" protections--such as the "precautionary principle" that undercuts the US and WTO reliance on science to define sanitary and phytosanitary measures will not be on the table. Thus, it will be very hard to strike an ambitious deal and allow the EU position on its use of "precautions" to stand.

The bloc has a similarly unhelpful position on Geographical Indications--the use of a city or region name as part of a product label, such as "champagne," and there are hundreds of others. On July 15, the European Commission called July 15 for the expansion of current "protected" geographical indications to non-agricultural products such as ceramics, marble, cutlery, shoes, tapestries and musical instruments. This means they intend to provide EU-wide legal protection and expand others via bilateral free trade agreements.

Observers note that while the current geographical indication scheme for agricultural products has raised considerable trademark law controversy, the Commission believes that "expanding it could present considerable economic potential." That is one of the amazing kinds of statements that are fairly frequently encountered in negotiations with the Europeans.

"The EU is rich in products based on traditional knowledge and production methods, which are often rooted in the cultural and social heritage of a particular geographical location from Bohemian crystal and Scottish tartans to Carrara marble to Tapisserie d'Aubusson," said Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. "Extending EU-wide GI protection to such products might bring considerable potential benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises and European regions," he said.

The Commission's reasoning is direct--and self-centered. "On a continent that has suffered nearly three years of recession and struggled with economic recovery, expanded GI legal protection would not only preserve EU diversity and cultural heritage but also make a significant contribution to European jobs and growth," Barnier said.

A recent Commission-sponsored study is being used to support EU claims. It argues that the existing trademark and intellectual property protection for products of non-agricultural GIs are insufficient because only 14 EU member states have national schemes in place. "These laws take various forms, ranging from regional or national regulations on specific crafts to specific laws on a certain product or to regional or national laws that protect all non-agricultural GI products," the Commission said.

"As a consequence, to protect non-agricultural GIs in the EU today the only possibilities are to register the product member state by member state where that possibility exists or to rely on other tools such as trademark protection, litigation and/or action via administrative authorities in case of unfair commercial practice or consumer deception," it said.

This is not a new fight. Currently, nearly 3,000 agricultural products are registered in the EU for GI protection. And, while EU trading partners have pushed back hard on efforts at the World Trade Organization Doha Round to get worldwide recognition of its GI scheme, it has succeeded those protections in several bilateral free trade agreements.

So, the issue of these protections is a growing source of contention in the US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. A few EU GI's for agricultural products are registered trademarks in the United States, but the US has long opposed giving trademark protection to what it says are generic "common" names that have evolved in the US food industry over the past 100 years.

The US will continue to argue that products distinguished only by the location of their production do not deserve protection, of course. However, US negotiators note that the consultation document, known as a "green paper," is a possible forerunner to a legislative proposal that could make future EU concessions on the matter increasingly difficult.

While there is considerable enthusiasm in some quarters for a US-EU FTA, most Europeans appear to favor much more managed systems that are deeply protected with some of the world's highest tariffs and most arbitrary sanitary-phytosanitary rules. So far, even the traders who depend on global markets seem at least as interested in keeping their antiquated system of protections of many kinds as they are in expanding their market access--and, they have not been shy about shoving many of their restrictions into FTAs.

Thus, it will require vigilance and determination for the United States not to end up with a significant number of anti-trade clauses in any US-EU FTA and perhaps little improvement in US market access over the current situation. This is a threat that producers should watch carefully as the negotiations continue, Washington Insider believes.

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