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By Muchaneta Chimuka
The first ever, Conference on Geographical Indications (GI) under the AfrlPI project in collaboration with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) countries has kick started today (10 -12 Nov) with several representatives from different countries in Africa in attendance.
The conference is aimed at unpacking issues to do with trade investiments and to create debate over the system of protection of geographical indications in the ARIPO region among other issues.
The AfrlPI Interlectual Property Rights & Innovation in Africa project is running for five year until 2025 while it continues to have other engagements in Africa.
In a speech read of his behalf by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry Mrs Virginia Mabhiza, Honourable Ziyambi Ziyambi who is the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, thanked the European Union and the EUIPO for the contribution to the development of Intellectual Property in Africa through this Project and the allocation of resources for its implementation.
“A team of experts was deployed to ARIPO Headquarters to that end. With the objective of seeking avenues to address the challenges of the multiple schemes of protection for GIs within ARIPO Member States. Further, looking at the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the workshop offers a framework to leverage on ARIPO Member States’ regimes to streamline the provisions on GIs that should be in the IP Protocol being negotiated under the AfCFTA.
“ARIPO Member States span an area of 7 million square kilometers, have a combined population of 230 million people and a GDP of USD 368 billion. Besides, the AfCFTA Agreement aims to create a single market of 1.27 billion consumers with an aggregate GDP between US $2.1 and $3.4 trillion. It’s a fast-growing market too, as consumer numbers are expected to increase to 1.7 billion by 2030,” said Hon. Ziyambi.
He said, ten years ago, the ARIPO Council of Ministers adopted a resolution to develop a system for protection of Geographical Indications. T
The following year in November 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ARIPO and the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission.
Minister Ziyambi said it was worth noting that in the ARIPO region, there are around 200 registered GIs regardless of the system of protection and some ARIPO member states have recently started counting in these statistics which include Mozambique that registered the Cabrito de Tete (Tete goat); Kenya: Coffee and Taita Baskets; Uganda: Mukono Vanilla. Potential GIs in Ghana are also very close to the goal.
He acknowledged some producers that were present which include the Kariba bream from Zimbabwe and the White Honey of Oku from Cameroon.
The Director General of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation Mr Benyama Twebaze said, the conference comes after the European Delegation/Union and the ARIPO have successfully collaborated in other areas of intellectual property such as [to complete, if applicable] [suggested: on mechanisms for bilateral cooperation in activities related to trademarks and industrial designs as well as enforcement.
“The AfrlPI program, is funded and directed by the European Union, co-funded and implemented by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) covers all intellectual property rights including the so-called geographical indications.
The concept of GI has a long-lasting existence has a tool of differentiation for agricultural products and foodstuffs. On the other hand, citizens and consumers in the worldwide increasingly demand quality as well as traditional products which means geographical indications still offer significant opportunities to producers,” he said.
He said, from a commercial perspective, producers around the world are viewing the GI scheme with increasing interest to position their goods in specific market segments. As a result, GIs create value for millions of producers, processors, and distributors around the world.
“In the EU, the GI sector has made a tremendous contribution to the economy, representing a sales value of more than EUR 75 billion and some 15.5 % of total EU food and drink exports . The average premium rate ensured by GIs – estimated at 2.07 in the EU in 2017 – gives concrete opportunities to producers in rural areas, creating long-lasting jobs and thereby preventing the rural exodus. Likewise, spillover effects in related sectors, such as the tourism contribute to maintaining vibrant rural areas,” he said.
He further stated that producers can only continue to produce a diverse range of quality products if they are rewarded fairly for their effort highlighting the imperatives for them to communicate with buyers and consumers about the characteristics of their product under conditions of fair competition.
“Since 1992, the countries of the European Union have mastered their protection of appellation of origin and geographical indications through the improvement of the common legislation and procedure – the so-called two-step system which envisages the involvement of the commission in the examination process and ensures full-fledged study of the object to be protected with a geographical indication. The EU countries also benefit from the implementation of a European register and of the judicial dispute resolution mechanism enforce through the European Court of Justice,” he highlighted.
He also commended the mandate exclusive competence on the European Union in common commercial policy provided by Article 3(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU has recently allowed his member states to enjoy the high-level scope of protection available through the WIPO Geneva Act on appellations of origin and geographical indication. Following the accession of the EU, the Geneva Act has entered into force on 26 February 2020.
On 26 November 2012, the European Commission and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on co-operation to improve the protection of geographical indications.
As part of the implementation of the said memorandum, a series of workshops on Geographical Indications were held in some ARIPO Member States, namely Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Further workshops were jointly organized in 2014 by ARIPO and EU in Botswana and Mozambique under the theme: “GIs in Africa: from Theory to Practice”.
According to the AfrIPI project leader, Mr. Dennis Scheirs, “the AfrIPI project began operations in 2020 and will run until 2025. Among other activities, AfrIPI has already successfully supported an application to protect the Cameroonian GI ‘Penja Pepper’ at the EU level and the commercial launch of the ‘Cabrito de Tete’ GI in Mozambique.”
The ARIPO Member States are Botswana, The Kingdom of Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, The Kingdom of Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.