Honduras is an important trading partner for the dairy industry and that industry is commending the U.S. government for its recent work to secure clarifications about the right to use several generic cheese names in their exports.

The work done will also establish a better model for providing food information to other Central American countries in the future.  Last year U.S. dairy exports to members of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) totaled $109 million, with Honduras ranking second.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) said they appreciated the Administration’s diligent work with Honduras, which this week clarified the use of threatened cheese names including parmesan, provolone and brie. Although the results did not include assurance on the continued use of certain other common names currently protected in Honduras, it does provide important assurances on many common name products.

“The dairy industry has worked closely with the Administration for several years to mitigate potential damage to our CAFTA market access opportunities arising from the Central America – EU FTA,” said NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern. “USTR’s work with Honduras was particularly important, since a previous lack of easily accessible information in Honduras hurt our own efforts to determine our ability to keep using common cheese names in exports to that country.”

Tom Suber, president of USDEC, added his praises with a reminder that the battle is ongoing.

“Essentially, through geographical indications provisions in its FTAs, Europe wants to monopolize the use of food names that have long been in the public domain,” Suber said. “We encourage USTR keep working in additional markets – both in Central America and around the globe – to preserve our ability to use these common cheese names, particularly in countries with which we have our own free trade agreements.”