By Victoria Hines
In January 2013, the Champagne
Bureau, a lobbying organization based in Washington, criticized the Obama administration’s decision to
list “Korbel Natural Russian River Valley Champagne” on the menu of the
inauguration dinner. To them, Champagne is characteristic of Champagne, France,
and thus California wineries are mislabeling their wines by using the Champagne
label. 117 countries are sympathetic to this sentiment, and protect the
Champagne name, while the U.S. allows the label to be used by wine produced
outside the Champagne region. Several agreements, including the WTO’s TRIPS
Agreement, have included increased protections for geographical indicators of
various products over the past two decades, yet the U.S. has consistently
failed to follow suit in offering its own protections. However, the U.S. may
now be more willing to protect such geographical indicators not only for wine,
but also for other food products, such as feta cheese and Darjeeling tea.
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