GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Spoutnik – July 07, 2021) The World Trade Organization (WTO) has not yet taken a position on the dispute over the new Russian standards on alcoholic beverages, nor is it aware of European Union actions aimed at bringing the relevant issue to the WTO platform, the organization’s spokesperson told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the European Commission press service told Sputnik that the committee is assessing whether Russia’s new alcoholic drink rules violate the country’s WTO obligations and is ready to take action. Also on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Paris was analyzing a new Russian law regulating the labeling of champagne and intended to discuss the situation with Russia and at EU level in the near future in order to to protect the interests of French producers.

“We have no position (on the dispute over the new standards of Russian law – editor’s note). We are also not aware of any action by the EU to raise this issue through the settlement mechanism WTO disputes, “a WTO spokesperson told RIA Novosti. .

In turn, a Geneva-based trade official told Sputnik that the Agreement on Trade Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights sets out the WTO rules on the protection of geographical indications and provides additional protection for those indications for wines and spirits.

“Each WTO member must provide interested parties with the legal means to prevent the use of a geographical indication identifying wines for wines not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication in question or identifying spirits for spirits not originating in the place indicated by the geographical indication in question, ”said the source.

At the same time, he stressed that the issue of the protection of geographical indications was controversial in the WTO.

“The EU and a group of other ‘Old World’ members have been pushing for years to extend the protection of their GIs to other countries through new WTO rules, while members of the ‘ New World “like the United States, Canada, Australia and Argentina have opposed new protections in this area,” he said.