11/28/05 U.S.-E.U. wine deal; PNW Grains meeting

Washington Ag November 28, 2005 The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced a wine agreement between the United States and the European Union. Murphy: "For us it gets approval for all of our wine making practices which the European Union has never done before." That's Jim Murphy a wine trade specialist out of the USTR Office. Murphy explains what the E.U. is getting U.S. wine makers to agree to. Murphy: "It begins to restrict our use of certain names we call semi generic. These are names like champagne, chablis, burgundy that you see on U.S. wines. And we draw a line and say no new brands may be created using these names but we grandfather in all existing uses." The USTR says that in 2004 U.S. wine exports to the European Union were valued at over 487 million dollars. The Washington Association of Wheat Growers holds its annual convention later this week in combination with grain growing associations from Oregon and Idaho. The Pacific Northwest Grains Conference marks the first time since 1989 that the Washington Association, the Oregon Wheat Growers League and the Idaho Grain Producers Association have held a joint convention. The conferences runs this Wednesday through Friday at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. I'm Bob Hoff.