What’s in a Name Proponents of geographic indicators in Europe are upset that DG-Agri may be planning to hand over more regulatory oversight of the GI scheme to the EU’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). GIs already carry intellectual property protection, but some fear the EUIPO will shift GIs towards a brand trademark approach. EUIPO works closely with the Commission on technical matters but leaves political matters in the hands of the Commission. Meanwhile, the American Association of Dressings and Sauces, yes, there is such a group, successfully petitioned the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to deregulate a 1950 “standard of identity” for “French dressing.” The industry argued that innovation...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.