Europe is a major global exporter of famous agricultural goods, and there’s a lot at stake for them in this agreement—if it works. According to the European Observatory on infringements of Intellectual Property Rights (pdf, p. 23), the European spirits and wine sector alone loses 6,049 job and €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) in direct sales a year due to counterfeits. Meanwhile, China is the third largest market for EU agri-food products, and it’s growing fast, thanks to a wealthy middle-class.

But merely agreeing that a given product is geographically indicated doesn’t mean that all counterfeiting will stop. And the EU-China agreement isn’t final yet. It still has to be agreed on by the European Parliament—an institution that isn’t exactly known for its sympathies to China these days. Still, officials believe it will come into force in 2021, with a further planned 175 GIs added by 2025.

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