Proposed Contribution to FAO's Global Perspectives on Geographical Indications Conference in February 2025

I would be interested in making a presentation on one or both of the following subjects:

• 1. Title: How the War on Terroir was won and lost

Subject: a presentation describing how EU's trade policy from 2010 prioritised securing protection worldwide for its geographical indications. The net effect of this was to transform the status of GIs from a neglected and parochial form of IPR to one now globally recognised as a genuine and development friendly concept.

The presentation will describe how the EU's trade negotiations resulted not only in protection for EU GIs but also stimulated third countries, both developed and developing, to build up their own stock of GIs, prioritise rural development, and introduce sui generis protection regimes comparable to that in Europe. This international spread of a “pro-GI culture” led in turn to the possibility of negotiating and successfully concluding the multilateral Geneva Act of the WIPO Lisbon Agreement. The presentation fits well with one of the themes of the Conference which is sustainability, notably from the social and economic and developing country perspective.

The presentation will set out the main features of GI protection in the EU's Free Trade Agreements, and analyse how and why opposition to GIs from the USA in particular failed so signally.

The presentation can be supported by power point slides if desired, and the speaking points can be circulated subsequently in the form of an article or paper.

• 2. Crossing The River By Feeling The Stones: The China-EU GI Agreement. Lessons for the Future

Subject: a presentation describing the negotiating history of the China-EU GI Agreement, to date the sole trade agreement between the two blocs. It will describe how what seemed unbridgeable differences in substance were successfully bridged, the obstacles and difficulties that interfered with negotiations, and the lessons learned by both sides during the process. The presentation will then look forward and make recommendations on how the Agreement can be strengthened and expanded in the next decade.

The purpose of this is not simply to provide a historical record of the negotiations (though this will be done), nor just recommendations for the future. There are two other objectives to this presentation. One, to demonstrate that in the course of negotiating GIs many intellectual/policy issues associated with the GI world presents itself. So the negotiations are a microcosm of this fascinating form of IPR. And secondly the presentation will demonstrate that it is possible and indeed beneficial for emerging economies or developing countries to pursue GI trade agreements for the purposes of consumer protection, economic growth, protection of the national patrimony, and rural development. GIs and GI agreements are a welcome buffer against the more negative aspects of globalisation. Again the presentation fits well with the Conference themes.

The presentation can be supported by PPT slides if desired, and the speaking points can be circulated subsequently in the form of an article or paper.