Letter to Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Michael Froman, United States Trade Representative - Dairy Products in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Letter

The Honorable Tom Vilsack
Secretary
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

The Honorable Michael Froman
United States Trade Representative
Office of the United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20508

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.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senator Rob Portman
U.S. Senator Carl Levin
U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen
U.S. Senator Dan Coats
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich
U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe
U.S. Senator Bob Casey
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley
U.S. Senator Angus King
U.S. Senator Tom Udall
U.S. Senator Mike Johanns
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
U.S. Senator Pat Roberts
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill
U.S. Senator Mark Warner
U.S. Senator John Boozman
U.S. Senator Tim Johnson
U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte
U.S. Senator Deb Fischer
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
U.S. Senator John Cornyn
U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski
U.S. Senator Patty Murray
U.S. Senator Al Franken
U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin
U.S. Senator Tim Scott
U.S. Senator Mark Udall
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine
U.S. Senator John Thune
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander
U.S. Senator Cory Booker
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy
U.S. Senator Mark Pryor
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal
U.S. Senator Ed Markey