Thread by @CoppetainPU

How long do trade negotiations take? This one has been up and crawling for a quarter of a century.

As you prepare the drink (and even the cheeseboard, or other delicacies) for upcoming festivities, here’s a little known fact about these goodies and the WTO.

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Back in 1994—25 years ago—WTO members agreed to negotiate a register for geographical indications for wines & spirits

Geographical indications are names of products associated with places, and having particular qualities. Think Scotch, Gruyère, etc

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tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/wha…

WTO members all agree there should be a multilateral register. They disagree on what it should do

Underlying this: the WTO’s intellectual property agreement (“TRIPS”) says the countries themselves can decide how IP is protected under their own laws

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wto.org/english/docs_e…

The EU etc want the multilateral register to influence what WTO members do with registered names, such as creating a presumption—which could be challenged under each country’s law—that the names should be protected.

They want it to have an impact

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wto.org/english/tratop…

A few years after the talks started, the EU, Switzerland and a number of developing countries proposed expanding the proposed register to include the names of other products—not just wines and spirits, but also other drinks, food, even handicrafts

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wto.org/english/tratop…

On the other side of the negotiation, the US, Australia, etc want the register to be a passive database that countries’ intellectual property authorities can consult if they want to.

They also oppose expanding it to cover other products.

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wto.org/english/tratop…

On Monday, as happens every year, the chair of the “special sessions” (secret @wto code for “negotiations”) circulated an annual report on the talks.

He contrasted no movement in the WTO talks with activity outside the WTO, including in new deals

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docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

“I have also not been able to detect any movement in Members’ positions over the course of this year,” the chair wrote. He could have said “over the course of the past decade or two.”

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docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

His report includes this: “One delegation emphasised its view that the longstanding divergence of views made convergence unlikely and that it therefore opposed any intensification of work in any of the Doha negotiating groups” (Doha=WTO Doha Round talks)

docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…

… which is rather odd, since one negotiating group is intensifying its efforts to try to conclude in 2020 (on fisheries subsidies), and that member (the US?) is active in it.

Anyway, here’s the report’s conclusions.

Eat, drink and be merry!

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docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/S…