The Australian government has expressed that it will stop pursuing a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) if the deal is not in the country’s national interest.
This comes after Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell returned from his recent trip to Belgium to negotiate the trade deal.
The EU has demanded Australia extend geographical indication protection to hundreds of product names for the agreement to go through.
Geographical indications are a type of trademark that establishes intellectual property rights for specific products whose qualities are linked to the production region.
If Australia accepts the demand, local producers will be banned from using protected names such as parmesan, feta or prosecco for their products, potentially imposing substantial costs and drawbacks on Australian businesses….