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U.S. Dairy Industry Fighting Self-Inflicted Injury as GI Battle Heats Up But when President Obama announced plans for a new transatlantic by Jim Eichstadt trade deal with Europe in his 2013 state of the union address, EU officials Top to bottom … the U.S. dairy industry has reacted with anger and alarm in Brussels jumped at the chance to play the dairy GI card. Europe’s sud - at recent European Union (EU) threats to claim exclusive rights to many com - den move to restrict cheese names blindsided many in the U.S. dairy indus - mon cheese names, including Parmesan, Havarti, Swiss and Gouda. Such try who were unfamiliar with the import assessment fight. cheeses are produced, marketed and consumed throughout the world. The notion of U.S. cheese plants and cheese marketers being prohibited from selling their Clear warnings from DTC’s Castillo in 2003 wares bearing these traditional names is an absurdity of the “Free Trade” process. Mario Castillo, who led the fight against the dairy import promotion If successful, the EU’s threat poses obvious challenges to U.S. cheese assessment, repeatedly warned about the assessment’s unintended consequences makers. Less obvious: the fact that this emerging trade dispute was original - beginning in 2001. Castillo, a former chief of staff of the U.S. House Ag Com - ly provoked by some of the U.S. dairy groups now crying foul at the Euro - mittee, serves as executive director of the Dairy Trade Coalition. Some of the pean demands. unintended consequences Castillo cited more than a decade ago included the EU trade negotiators are demanding the right to prohibit the use of many threat of European retaliation on dairy GIs. “Geographic Indicators” (GIs, or place-based product names) on cheeses and Noting the strength of domestic specialty cheese sales in the U.S., Castil - other foods produced outside the specific European regions where these tradi - lo warned of the coming dairy GI fight in a letter to the editor published July 11, tional names originated. Such proposed “claw back” restrictions could bar a 2003 in Cheese Reporter : wide array of dairy products produced and sold for decades with common, “But how long will American cheese makers be able to continue using the generic names in the U.S. and other markets outside Europe. familiar names propelling the growth of the US specialty cheese market? … Familiar cheeses produced in the U.S., including Asiago, Brie, Edam, Feta, According to our colleague on assignment in Geneva, the Europeans have been Gouda, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano – and potentially many more – could no quietly discussing the possibility of seeking protection for geographical indica - longer be labeled with those names if the EU prevails at the bilateral Transat - tors (Gis) beyond European wines, spirits, and related products. Apparently, the lantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations now underway Europeans are preparing to walk into the upcoming World Trade Organization with the U.S. GI restrictions could create huge marketing problems for U.S. Ministerial meeting in Cancun with stealth weapons aimed at the very heart of cheese makers – who would be forced to use unfamiliar names for their cheeses. the US dairy industry – those segments of our cheese market with the greatest And just imagine the huge confusion for consumers at the supermarket the growth potential,” Castillo said. supermarket dairy case, unable to find their favorite Parmesan or muenster. The outcome of this food fight is subject to ongoing negotiations at bilateral trade NMPF acknowledged foreign cheese names in 2004 talks between the U.S. and EU. National Milk spokesman Chris Galen acknowledged the issue of Euro - (A note from the author: I first encountered the dairy GI issue in early pean cheese names in a 2004 interview on Dairyline, a syndicated national radio 1992, as I was filing an Emmental cheese price undercutting complaint at program: “If we’re promoting mozzarella, feta, cheddar, gorgonzola, those are USDA against Switzerland. The Swiss agricultural attaché angrily confronted all foreign cheeses to begin with, at least the names are …” Galen said. (See me at a farm meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, threatening official action to block sidebar story below.) the use of “Swiss”-related names on cheeses produced in the U.S. if I didn’t drop the complaint. I ignored Switzerland’s threat and went on to win the price undercutting complaint – along with a similar complaint against several Euro - NMPF Acknowledged Foreign pean countries in 1995.) Cheese Name Issue in 2004 Import assessment provoked fight National Milk Producers Federation and other industry groups sowed the by Jim Eichstadt seeds for the European cheese name fight by politicking for the U.S. dairy National Milk Producers Federation continued to push for implemen - import promotion assessment starting in 2001. The Dairy Trade Coalition tation of the dairy import promotion assessment in 2004, even as its chief (DTC) warned NMPF and its allies during the 2002 Farm Bill debate that the motor-mouth publicly acknowledged the role of European cheese names in import assessment would have unintended negative consequences for U.S. dairy the assessment debate. farmers. The protracted and bitter battle over the dairy import promotion assess - Chris Galen, NMPF vice president of communications, made refer - ment legislation – which was first passed in 2002, heavily modified in 2008, and ence to foreign cheese names in a syndicated national radio program, long eventually implemented in 2011 – set the stage for the current dispute over pro - after National Milk had been warned that the import assessment could pro - tected GI cheese names, as the DTC predicted. (See below.) voke European retaliation on the use of their traditional cheese names in The European demands for GI restrictions come as the Obama administra - the U.S. tion is pushing to expand trade with the European Union under the T-TIP talks “If we’re promoting Mozzarella, Feta, Cheddar, Gorgonzola, those which began July 8, 2013 in Washington, DC. The GI restrictions could cover a are all foreign cheeses to begin with, at least the names are, so the point large and growing list of cheese varieties and other food products eligible for is, we’re in no danger of having the program be hijacked by the rela - protected status within EU’s 28 member countries. The fourth round of the U.S.- tively small amount of representation that would come from imports,” EU talks took place March 10-14 in Brussels, Belgium. In Wisconsin, execu - Galen said on Lee Mielke’s July 29, 2004 Dairyline radio program. tives of firms that process meats worry that they might lose the right to label a The “foreign cheeses” Galen referred to are central to current Euro - “bratwurst” as bratwurst. After all, as EU logic follows, the term “bratwurst” pean efforts to restrict U.S. cheese makers from using common cheese has Germanic roots dating back centuries. names such as Parmesan, Asiago, and Havarti that the European Union is The EU proposal would allow protected GI names to be used only on prod - now seeking to protect as Geographical Indicators (GIs) GIs. ucts originating from within the specified regions, e.g., Parmesan cheese from Galen’s comments came more than two years after the import assess - Parma, Italy; Feta cheese from Greece; and Havarti cheese from Denmark. ment was signed into law as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. National Milk Long-standing GI restrictions for wines and spirits allow the name Champagne, ignored repeated warnings of European trade retaliation on dairy GIs as it for example, to be used only on sparkling wines produced in a specific region pushed for implementation of the import assessment for another seven near Reims, France. years, until USDA’s final rule took effect April 1, 2011. Why the sudden fuss over GIs? Pedrozo cites failed dairy leadership Dairy has been the exception to the GI rule, until recently. Most of the Events are now unfolding much as the DTC predicted in 2003. Tim Pedro - now-disputed names have become almost generic after decades of use on zo, a farmstead cheese maker and DTC member from Orland, California, active - cheeses produced worldwide. Immigrants from Italy, Switzerland, and other ly fought the import promotion assessment. European countries have produced their traditional, Old World-style cheeses “National Milk is largely responsible for the GI mess. Leaders of big co- in the U.S. without challenge since the early 1900s. Among those immigrants ops ignored every warning during the nine years it took to pass and implement stunned by the European GI threat is Errico Auricchio, who moved to the U.S. the import promotion assessment. One Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association from Italy in 1979. His firm, Bel Gioioso Cheese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, official also dismissed the DTC’s warnings on the import assessment, and now has been producing fine Italian-style cheeses in the U.S. for 30 years. (See claims to be shocked that the Europeans have kept their promise to retaliate. sidebar story on page 9.) Unfortunately, dairy farmers and cheese makers have been very poorly repre - More recently, big European dairy processors have gotten in on the spe - sented on the import assessment issue,” Pedrozo said. cialty cheese act in a big way, ramping up production of the disputed varieties “Not only did the import assessment fiasco undermine many common at their plants in the U.S. Lactalis, a French-owned multinational firm, produces cheese names, it also let dairy importers hijack our REAL® Seal for promoting Brie, Camembert, Feta, and Italian-type cheeses in Wisconsin, California, and imported cheeses and milk proteins,” said Pedrozo, who has been involved in Idaho.

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