30 May 2006
The Australian wine industry may lose the right to use traditional wine names, a Monash University Law School symposium will be told on Thursday 1 June.
Symposium convenor and Monash Law School lecturer Dr Matt Harvey said Australia was about to sign a new agreement with the European Union that would further restrict Australian use of traditional European wine names such as Port, Sherry, White Burgundy and Tokay, as it did with Champagne.
Dr Harvey said the EU was pushing hard to protect its own wine industry and had Australia 'over a barrel'.
"The EU is a very good market for Australian wine, so we have little choice but to accept the restrictions they seek to place on us," he said.
"The good news is that the Australian wine industry has responded creatively to the restrictions already imposed by using imaginative forms of naming and labeling and by establishing reputations for distinctive wine regions.
"The question is, what will the Europeans want to take away from us next? The most recent example being feta, which the EU has declared can only be Greek."
The symposium will also hear a justification of the EU's position and participants will be able to taste the difference between EU and Australian wines.
Speakers include:
Monash University Law School intellectual property expert Professor Mark Davison -- 'Of wine, cheese and GIs: Keeping Australia 'unfeta-ed'
University of Adelaide wine law expert Ms Vicki Waye -- 'From Pyrenees to Porongurup'
Corrs Chambers Westgarth intellectual property lawyer Mr Steve Stern, who acts for many of the famous French wine houses -- 'War stories and wine treaties'
What: EU-Australia wine law symposium
When: Thursday 1 June, 6.30 - 9 pm
Where: Monash University Law Chambers, 472 Bourke St, Melbourne
RSVP: Contact +61 3 9905 2326 or email marketing@law.monash.edu.au
For further information contact Ms Natasha Whalley, Media Communications, on +61 3 9905 9201 or 0437 458 457 or Ms Jodi Rockman, Faculty of Law on +61 3 9905 2630.
| 
