In September 2020, the EU and China signed an agreement on cooperation and protection of Geographical Indications (GIs) – according to which China will recognise and protect 100 EU agri-food GIs (96 excluding the UK), and the EU will do the same with 100 Chinese agri-food products. The agreement will come into force in January 2021. The full text of the agreement and the list of EU GIs covered is available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.LI.2020.408.01.0003.01.ENG.

The agreement will in particular safeguard the protection of the translation and transliterations of GI names in Chinese language; it will also automatically reject all trademark applications misusing the GIs, as well as third-party registration of protected GIs.

Furthermore, four years after its entry into force, the scope of the agreement will expand to cover an additional 175 GIs from both sides; a mechanism to add even more GIs in the future is also included.