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Overview
A geographical indication (GI) is a term showing that a good comes from a specific place and has qualities or reputation essentially due to its origin. For example, Champagne for sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France.
Protection of GIs was necessary for Australia to secure an agreement with the EU. Under the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement (A-EU FTA), Australia has agreed to protect 396 EU GIs. Most of the EU GIs are not used by or commercially significant to Australian producers. Common words such as brie and prosciutto are not protected under the Agreement (see list of EU GIs).
Following public consultations throughout the negotiations, Australia secured a range of flexibilities for certain commercially significant terms, including continued free use (e.g. parmesan), grandfathering for existing users (e.g. Feta) and phasing out (e.g. Ouzo).
While Australia will protect the EU GI, Prosecco, Australia has also succeeded in retaining the rights of Australian wine producers to use Prosecco as the name of a grape variety in Australia. We will implement this change under the Wine Agreement.
Further information on the outcomes under the Wine Agreement can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website.
New GI system
Australia will develop a new GI system which, in addition to protecting the list of EU GIs, will provide Australians the opportunity to protect Australian GIs.
Key outcomes
Australia will protect 231 spirit and 165 agricultural goods GIs under the A-EU FTA. Most of the agricultural GIs consist of dairy and smallgoods.
For more information on GIs in the A-EU FTA, please refer to: