China-EU GI Agreement finalised

As you may be aware, in 2017 Australian Grape & Wine objected in China, to the registration of three compound terms (Conegliano Valdobbiadene – Prosecco / Montepulciano d’Abruzzo / Vino nobile di Montepulciano) that the EU was seeking to protect as European GIs. The basis of the objection was that the terms contained the grape variety names “Prosecco” and “Montepulciano”.

In November this year, China and the EU announced the finalisation of their GI Agreement and that 100 EU GIs would be protected in China (including the three we had objected to, noted above).

We understand that the Chinese have agree to protect the compound terms “as a whole term” . We believe this means the grape variety names should still be available for use by Australian exporters, and we are also seeking clarification through the Australian Embassy in China.