Trump pushes to dismantle EU’s protected cheese names

Trump Challenges EU’s Protected Cheese Name System

The United States and the European Union are locked in an escalating trade battle over who gets to use names like feta, Parmesan, and Asiago — a dispute that has moved from trade policy circles to the center of transatlantic relations as the Trump administration pushes to dismantle Europe’s system of protected food designations in markets around the world.

A Wisconsin Family Caught in a Global Fight

At the heart of the conflict are American producers like the Sartori family of Wisconsin, which has made Asiago cheese for four generations, dating back to Italian immigrant Paolo Sartori. Under EU pressure, however, many countries now bar American companies from using the name “Asiago,” reserving it for cheese produced in specific Italian regions. The same restrictions apply to Parmesan and Romano, forcing companies like Sartori to limit how they market products abroad.protothema

“Consumers should decide which cheese wins in the marketplace, not European lawyers,” Bert Sartori, the company founder’s great-grandson, told The Wall Street Journal.protothema

Washington has responded by embedding provisions in new trade agreements that classify these names as “generic” — describing a type of product rather than its geographic origin. Countries including Taiwan, Malaysia, and Argentina have agreed to let U.S. companies use widely recognized cheese names. Argentina’s deal with the United States, announced in late 2025, specifically commits Buenos Aires not to restrict market access for products using certain cheese and meat terms.nmpf

Europe Defends Its Heritage

The EU maintains that names like feta and Parmigiano Reggiano are tied to centuries of regional tradition and cannot be separated from their geographic roots. Greece has held exclusive EU rights to the name “feta” since 2002. The Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano argues that only cheese made in northern Italy under strict production standards deserves the Parmigiano label, noting that global sales of imitation “Parmesan” exceed €2 billion annually.dairynews

The 2025 Special 301 Report from the U.S. Trade Representative called the EU’s geographical indications agenda “highly concerning,” accusing Brussels of granting protection to “terms that are considered in those markets to be the common name for products”. The U.S. National Milk Producers’ Federation has pointed to a nearly $3 billion annual dairy trade deficit with Europe as evidence that the system disadvantages American exporters.dairyreporter

A Battle Without Borders

The fight has spilled into third-country markets. In Indonesia, the EU secured an agreement recognizing feta as exclusively Greek and gorgonzola as exclusively Italian — only for the Trump administration to negotiate a separate deal allowing U.S. producers to use the same names. In Australia, a new EU trade agreement requires producers to phase out names like “fontina” and restricts future use of “feta”.allens

With U.S. cheese exports rising 20 percent last year, according to Protothema, and new bilateral agreements advancing across Southeast Asia and Latin America, the naming dispute shows no sign of resolution. As Shawna Morris of the National Milk Producers’ Federation put it, there is “a lot of good stuff coming down the pipe” — though Brussels is unlikely to see it that way.protothema