Free Trade Agreement EU- South Korea For the first time in a Bilateral Agreement between the EU and a Third Country, the EU provides for the Protection of European GIs for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs

On 15 October this year, the EU and the Republic of Korea signed a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which for the first time in the history of bilateral agreements entered into by the EU, provides for protection of European Geographical Indications and Designations of Origin (hereinafter: GIs) for wines and spirits and also for agricultural products and foodstuffs. Furthermore, for the first time in the history of bilateral agreements entered into by the EU, this provides for protection of a limited number of GIs. The Agreement is set to enter into force during the second half of 2010.
In this most comprehensive FTA ever negotiated by the EU, the EU has chosen and accepted to protect a certain number of GIs namely those which are considered as the most commercially significant. The GIs covered by the Agreement are listed in two attachments to the Agreement, one for wines and spirits (Annex 10-B, comprising Champagne, Grappa, Ribera del Duero, Ouzo and Scotch or Irish Whiskey), the other for GIs for agricultural products and foodstuffs (Annex 10-A), including among others Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Roquefort, Guijuelo, Turrón de Alicante and Bayerisches Bier.

About 160 major EU GIs will be protected directly once the Agreement enters into  force and all GIs, whether for agricultural products and foodstuffs or relating to wines and spirits, will have the same high level of protection that is to say in line with the protection currently accorded to GIs for wines and spirits under Art. 23 of TRIPs Agreement. GIs will be protected against :

use of a designation or presentation of a product that suggests that the product in question originates in a geographical area other than the true place of origin, in a way that misleads the public as to the product’s geographical origin;
the use of a geographical indication identifying goods for a similar product not originating in the place indicated by this GI in question, even where the true origin of the goods is indicated or the GI is used in translation or transcription or accompanied by expressions such as “kind”, “style”, “imitation”; and
any other use which constitutes an act of unfair competition within the meaning of Article 10 bis of the Paris Convention.

The FTA further provides for a creation of a Working Group on GIs that may make recommendations and adopt decisions by consensus, such as to add or remove GIs. The Working Group shall be responsible for discussing any matter of mutual interest in the GI field as well as for exchanging information on legislative and policy developments and on information related to GIs for the purpose of considering their protection in accordance with the Agreement.

Both parties committed to providing protection to  additional GIs through a simple procedure set out in the Agreement. The latter will also protect around 65 GIs from South Korea in the EU so that  when consumers in the EU buy e.g. Yeoju Rice, they will have a guarantee that this will be the authentic South Korean product.

The inclusion of a restricted list of GIs in the framework of a bilateral agreement is an important precedent for the protection of European GIs and is in line with the current approach of the Commission in the present on going negotiations with the so-called Andean Community.

The EU-Korea FTA, in its Chapter 10 (Articles 10.5 -10.42), also includes some developed provisions on in particular copyright and designs complementing and updating to the TRIPS Agreement as well as a section on enforcement of IP rights based on the European internal rules set out in the Enforcement Directive.

The full text of the Agreement and its Annexes can be viewed at :  HYPERLINK "http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=443" EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement.