New EU-Australia Wine Trade Agreements on Trade Names
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A new agreement governing the wine trade between Australia and the European Union entered into force recently (replacing an older version signed in 1994). The new agreement gives full protection to EU geographical indications which prevent the use of certain names on wines (and goods in general) unless the wines are produced in the region indicated by that name.
Australian wine producers will be obliged to phase out use of important EU names such as "Champagne", "Port", "Sherry" and other European geographical indications, along with other traditional expressions such as, "Claret" from 1 September 2011.
The protection of geographical indications as described above has been in force in the EU for some time. The agreement with Australia will come as a timely boost to European wine producers who have seen their world market share impacted in recent years by the growing sales of "new world" wines.
