UN Study: GIs Could Open New Markets For Poor Countries If Financing, Training Provided 12/12/2016 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)A new study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) finds that geographical indications could open the way to lucrative export markets for least-developed countries. The study calls for UN agencies to support those countries in their effort to develop GIs and diversify their exports, but warns about the need for capacity building and financial help [sentence corrected]. The report [pdf], funded by the Italian government, was launched today in Geneva. According to an UNCTAD press release about the report, many of the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) possess unique foodstuffs that could find lucrative export markets. “Natural, heritage products, if protected and marketed well, could become a bigger source of revenue for many LDCs,” Stefano Inama of UNCTAD said in the release. “Many of these countries are dangerously dependent on commodity exports and must diversify their economies.” Geographical indications (GIs) are intellectual property right under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). They refer to products with unique distinctive characteristics and quality derived from a particular territory and knowhow. Trade flows of LDCs have been affected for decades by limited product diversification, consisting mainly of raw and low value added products, and fluctuating market value of traditional products. According to the study, evidence from the market and literature shows that the promotion and protection of products under GIs may result in higher economic gains, fostering quality production and equitable distribution of profits for LDCs’ rural communities. GIs encourage the preservation of biodiversity, traditional knowhow and natural resources, the study found. UNCTAD is “currently building capacity based on best practices to be adopted at national level to preserve and protect traditional products by implementing GIs and complying with sanitary and phytosanitary requirements,” the study said. It also notes that to cope with poverty, UN agencies such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), UNCTAD and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have started to include GIs as a development tool. The study advised that joint efforts of UN agencies should support LDCs requesting technical assistance for the implementation of GIs, bearing in mind the need for substantial financial resources to materialize such an attempt. Products featured in the report are the red rice of Bhutan; Kampot duriam (fruit) and Kampot pepper from Cambodia; Harenna wild coffee and Wukro honey from Ethiopia; Ziama-Macenta coffee from Guinea; coffee from Lao, pink rice from Madagascar, Imraquen women’s mullet from Mauritania; white prawn, and goat meat from Mozambique; and fruits from Senegal. A number of those products come from protected geographical areas, such as forests, and might face an ecological threat, such as deforestation, as they are cultivated in those protected areas the study said. Collective Protection, GIs, Trademarks Protected GIs can be regarded as a type of collective formal certifications, and in some countries, trademarks can also be considered as a kind of legally protected GI in which companies usually own the rights, the study said. Trademarks are used to protect GIs in many countries, such as the United States and Australia, and many developing nations, such as Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Kenya, it said. The report includes a description of legal schemes for protection of GIs, and the main differences between trademarks and GIs. Trademarks are usually characterised by the first in time, first in right principle, and the right to transfer and/or sell the right to anyone, GIs are not tradable and are only accessible for GI producers and/or processors located in the origin region, and who respect the conditions established in the code of practice that they have established. Environmental Protection Potentially Risky The study underlined that evidence from European GI cases shows mixed results regarding environmental protection. It also highlights the fact that excessive intensification when the protected GI becomes a success may lead to “great losses in biological biodiversity” (Bowen and Zapata, 2009). It would be crucial to examine to what extent increased production would affect natural resources in this area, such as the risk of intensification of land use, and extended use of chemical inputs, the study said. No Exaggerated Expectations According to the study, “expectations about GIs should not be exaggerated,” but GIs “can be developed through adaptive governance and co-learning of diverse supply chain actors in developing and developed countries in rural areas.” In the best case scenario, the GI implementation should lead to the promotion of local and external market alliances, for example to “overcome gatekeepers in international supply chains who can prevent consumers from learning about the product origin,” it said. Many LDCs do not possess the conformity assessment and enforcement mechanisms for GI protection and monitoring, and the implementation of GIs in LDCs is challenged by weak institutional structures, according to the study. Producers in LDCs should be supported by long-term policies and programmes aimed to promote collective action, traceability, monitoring and business development. The report also highlighted the cost of the implementation of GIs. But it did not appear to give an assessment of estimated costs for any of the featured products to be developed into a GI. Financial Resources Needed The implementation of GIs may be costly, as necessary financial resources are considerable and should be carefully gauged, the study said. “There is no value in having GIs registered only on paper, without being able to effectively market them or without adequate enforcement mechanisms put in place,” it said, adding that the role of government and semi-public organisations should not be underestimated. There is a lack of “cutting-edge evidence” to acknowledge economic benefits as a result of GIs in the developing world due to the still recent progress in the GI registration, the study found. However, immaterial benefits as a result of collective protection through GIs include the recognition of products as patrimony and cultural identity, the enhancement of organisational skills among farmers, and enhanced capabilities by involved actors, it said. GIs products should not only be considered for external markets, but as an alternative for local consumers to “taste origin-related products following certain quality standards.” “Producers should realise that one thing is to protect a certain agricultural product through GIs in their own/origin country, and quite another is to safeguard the same product in the export market country,” the study said. The study is “the result of activities carried out under the UNCTAD project TAAK on market access and trade laws funded by the Italian Government and the Development Account project entitled “Strengthening the capacity of rural communities in least developed countries to utilize the market access opportunities provided by duty-free quota-free and enhancing value added of their traditional products.” Image Credits: UNCTAD Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related Catherine Saez may be reached at csaez@ip-watch.ch."UN Study: GIs Could Open New Markets For Poor Countries If Financing, Training Provided" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.