Washington, 21st May 2014 – At the occasion of the 5th round of negotiations between the EU and the USA for the TTIP (Washington, May 19-23), the European wine exporters have urged the negotiators to place an ambitious wine trade deal at the heart of the TTIP agreement.
The Stakeholder Forum hosted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has given the opportunity to relevant stakeholders from both sides of the Atlantic to present to the negotiators the key challenges and opportunities for their respective sectors.
CEEV has underlined the importance of the inclusion of an ambitious wine chapter which consolidates the 2006 Wine Agreement into the TTIP, allowing i.a. to solve pending unsolved issues including the full protection of all wine GIs from both countries, eliminate tariffs, simplify certifications and administrative procedures, improve regulatory convergence, tackle discriminatory measures, and pragmatically address other emerging opportunities.
“The US market is now the top wine consumer country worldwide, and the EU is the top destination of US wine exports. The 2006 wine agreement was a first, important, yet clearly insufficient step. Impasse on “semi-generics” is no longer a sustainable option, and TTIP needs to achieve solutions ensuring the protection of all the wine GIs from both sides– declared José Ramon Fernandez, Secretary General of CEEV. “Wine cannot remain excluded from the benefits of TTIP, that will brings to our sectors and consumers the advantages of a broad bilateral strategic commercial and investment partnership. TTIP is a unique opportunity to deepen our bilateral cooperation and scale it up into a true win-win partnership focused on consumers interest, fair competition, and facilitation of bilateral and international wine trade”.
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Note to Editors
The Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV – www.ceev.eu represents the wine companies in the industry and trade in the European Union: still wines, sparkling wines, liqueur wines, aromatised wines and other vine products. It brings together 24 national organisations. With more than 7.000 companies, mainly SMEs, and more than 200.000 direct jobs in the EU, its members produce and market the vast majority of quality European wines, with and without a geographical indication, and account for over 90% of European wine exports. In 2013, with around 8,9 billion euros worth of exports, the wine sector made a contribution of over 6,5 billion euros to the EU trade balance.
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