A coalition of farm and agricultural groups — including the U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, the Consortium for Common Food Names, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the North American Meat Institute, and the American Farm Bureau Federation — is applauding a bipartisan letter sent today by 111 members of Congress urging stronger protections for American-made food and wine exports using common terms. This is an important message regarding the need for enhanced U.S. efforts to combat the European Union’s (EU) attempts to ban U.S. exports of cheese, meat and wine products that are labeled with common terms – such as parmesan, bologna or chateau, the groups said.

“Congress has spoken loudly; it is time for stronger action by the U.S. government,” said Jaime Castaneda, executive director of the Consortium for Common Food Names. “For far too long, Europe has used unjustified trade barriers to block competition from high-quality American-made cheese, meat and wine exports. Europe is undermining global trade rules and weakening intellectual property system protections internationally. Today’s letter is an important reminder that we must raise the bar in our efforts in order to prevail in creating agricultural trade policy that works for the world, not just the European Union.”