The Noodle Bowl Effect on the table of Geographical Indications – A case study on the GI-specific provisions of the Sino-EU and Sino-US Agreements

Abstract

Being the world’s biggest agri-food importer, with a demand rapidly shifting towards high quality food, China has become a very appealing market to GI products and high quality food exporters. China has recently signed two bilateral agreements with the EU and US. The two agreements attracted special attention, as some relevant contents and crisscrossing obligations may cause international disputes on the treatment of foreign Geographical Indications in China. In the first half of our research, drawing upon secondary sources, we analyze the complex legal and economic framework that encloses the Sino-EU and Sino-US Agreement. In the second half, we untangle these two sets of crisscrossing obligations by analyzing in detail relevant clauses and possible conflicts. We conclude that the two economic powers’ vertical shift to parallel negotiation for the settlement of beyond TRIPS provisions has caused added complexity to the issue of Geographical Indications, and therefore the theory of the Noodle Bowl effect also applies to this very narrow field of Intellectual Property. This is the outcome of EU and US policy export race, that is on a route marked out by the de facto interplay of national and international rules for the protection of Trademarks and Geographical Indications.