Mercosur, Hansen: 'EU ready for legal action if Argentina violates PGI agreement'
Buenos Aires cooperates in assessing fallout from Trump-Milei deal
"The EU Commission will ensure that the specific PGI provisions are effectively implemented and will not hesitate to take legal action. It is also assessing the full implications of the recent US-Argentina agreement for EU trade interests, in constructive cooperation with the Argentinian authorities'.
Thus EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen on the 'legal compatibility' between Argentina's commitments under the agreement with the US and the obligations to protect geographical indications under the EU-Mercosur agreement.
Responding to a question by MEP Stefano Bonaccini, Hansen added that 'the timely application of the EU-Mercosur agreement is the best and only insurance policy against the abuse of European PGI in Argentina and Mercosur in general: if the EU considers that Argentina is not complying with these obligations, it can resort to the dispute settlement mechanism'.
The case broke out last February when, just a few days after the closure of Mercosur, US President Trump and his Argentine counterpart Milei signed a trade agreement that - conveying Buenos Aires' commitment to address the critical issues highlighted in the US '2025 Special 301 Report' on the protection of intellectual property - sanctioned the protection of a series of fake Italian-made PGIs produced in the US.
Specifically, this concerns 39 cheese names and eleven meat products defined as 'common', including leading European GIs such as Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan), Grana Padano, Asiago, Fontina, Gorgonzola, Brie and Feta. This is despite the fact that the EU-Mercosur agreement, to which Argentina is a signatory, contains a specific chapter for the protection of 347 EU GIs.
