Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to seek mutual recognition of geographical indicators with the EU.

The Government recognises the economic and cultural importance of UK geographical indications (GIs).

The protection of UK GIs in the EU and EU GIs in the UK is subject to ongoing negotiations, and we are working as quickly as possible to come to a solution. However, we anticipate that all current UK GIs will continue to be protected by the EU’s GI schemes after we leave the EU.

We will use the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to ensure GI schemes for wines, aromatised wines, spirit drinks, agricultural products and foodstuffs are in place once the UK is no longer bound by EU law. This will provide UK protection for UK GIs when we leave the EU and ensure that the UK fulfils its obligations under World Trade Organisation Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights rules.