Fresno Leader

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (CA-21) and Dusty Johnson (SD-AL) along with U.S. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports (SAVE) Act to protect American food products from unfair trade practices by foreign countries.

“Monopolizing common food names could have major ramifications on American producers and our food supply chain,” said Costa. “This bipartisan bill will protect American goods from unfair trading practices, that could minimize access to global markets and increase costs for consumers.”

“Requiring U.S. producers to change the names of their food is confusing for consumers and costly to producers and manufacturers,” said Johnson. “The SAVE Act ensures American producers retain vital access to foreign markets in a time that may be more critical than ever.”

“By exploiting valid geographical indication protections, global competitors have for decades tried to limit competition, block imports, and restrict American-made products from being able to use common food and beverage names,” said Thune. “I’m proud to lead this effort in the Senate to help level the playing field for U.S. producers by ensuring they can use common food names and preserve and expand foreign market access for their products.”

“Our Made in Wisconsin agricultural and food products are rightfully world-renowned for their quality. But, when foreign countries penalize our producers for using common names like parmesan or cheddar, their unfair trade practices stunt the growth of Made in Wisconsin businesses on the international market,” said Baldwin. “That’s why I’m proud to support this bipartisan legislation that ensures Wisconsin producers and farmers can continue to compete internationally, grow their businesses and keep Wisconsin on the map around the world.”

Common food and drink names such as parmesan, chateau, and bologna are used around the world to describe products to consumers. However, due to geographic indication to European locations, the European Union has begun using economic and political influence to implement unfair trade practices under the guise of protecting geographic indicators. These unfair trade practices have the potential to block United States’ agriculture products from being sold in international markets.

The SAVE Act would amend the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to include and define a list of common names for ag commodities, food products, and terms used in marketing and packaging of products. The bill would also direct the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate with our foreign trading partners to defend the right to use common names for ag commodities in those same foreign markets.

Click HERE to see the full text of the bill.

Issues: Agriculture 

Original source can be found here.