The EU and Mexico strengthen cooperation in geographical indications

Today the European Union and Mexico strengthened their cooperation in geographical indications (GIs) protection by updating their agreement on the mutual recognition and protection of designations for spirit drinks.

The lists attached to the agreement have been updated with the insertion of new terms from both sides. It brings the number of EU spirits geographical indications protected in Mexico to 232 and 6 Mexican spirits geographical indications protected in the EU.

The agreement was originally made in 1997 and amended in 2004 to take into account the enlargement of the EU as well as new Mexican spirits GIs. This new update, published today in the Official Journal of the EU, enters into force on 31 January 2020.

The EU and Mexico concluded the modernisation of their global agreement in 2018, 340 EU wine and foodstuff geographical indications and 20 Mexican foodstuff geographical indications are included there. Consequently, Mexico and the EU will reciprocally protect almost 600 geographical indications.

Background

EU quality schemes aim at protecting the names of specific products to promote their unique characteristics, linked to their geographical origin as well as traditional know-how. This is one of the great successes of European agriculture, with more than 3,300 EU names registered as either protected geographical indication (PGI) or protected designation of origin (PDO), playing an important role in rural development.

A further 1,250 or so non-EU names are also protected within the EU, mostly thanks to bilateral agreements such as this one with Mexico. In value terms, the market for EU geographical indications is around €74.8 billion, and together they account for 15.4% of total EU food and drinks exports.

In 2018, the EU exported to Mexico EUR 1.5 billion worth of agricultural products and imported EUR 1.3 billion. This represents only 1.1% of the EU total agri-food exports and imports but already 3.8% of total exports from the EU to Mexico and 5.1% of total imports from Mexico into the EU. Mexico ranked 21st among our agri-food import partners and 26th among our agri-food export partners.

In 2018, spirits and liquors accounted for 17% of EU agri-food exports to Mexico and 8% of Mexico agri-food exports to the EU, representing a two-way trade of 355 million euros, hence demonstrating the vitality and importance of the spirits sector for both sides.

O artigo foi publicado originalmente em Comissão Europeia.