Swiss abandon defence of Gruyère cheese trademark abroad
The protected designation of origin (PDO) of Gruyère cheese will no longer be defended worldwide.
On Monday, the Swiss Senate tacitly rejected a motion aimed at better defending PDO and PGI (protected geographical indication) products like Gruyère cheese. It did, however, say it was prepared to raise awareness of these labels.
The House of Representatives had approved the motion last year, after Gruyère cheese’s PDO was definitively abandoned by American retailers. The United States has been able to produce its own Gruyère cheese since winning a legal battle with Swiss producers.
More
US court rules gruyère cheese isn’t just Swiss
Restrictive text adapted
The text of the motion called on the Swiss government to require the application of, and respect for, the recognition of Swiss PDOs and PGIs in all trade agreements. Such a measure would restrict Switzerland’s room for manoeuvre in terms of foreign trade, and could even prevent the conclusion of new agreements, declared Economy Minister Guy Parmelin.
However, the Senate has proposed an alternative to the motion, with very few constraints. It encourages the government to make a greater commitment to respecting the recognition of products of Swiss origin. Awareness-raising could, for example, be carried out as part of trade agreement negotiations. This adapted motion was tacitly approved by the Senate and now goes to the House of Representatives for approval.
Translated from French by DeepL/ac
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
European nations snub Swiss-made weapons over Ukraine restrictions
More
Switzerland now has a Professor of Gender Medicine. She’s here to stay.
More
Swiss reject biodiversity and pension reform proposals
More
Construction starts on first large-scale solar park in Swiss Alps
More
Six things you need to know about Pavel Durov and Telegram
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.