On Wednesday 11 September 2025, Martijn Huysmans’ (Utrecht University, School of Economics) presented From Champagne to Kampot pepper: EU development aid to export the idea of Geographical Indications, as part of the Utrecht University Applied Economics seminar series.

The speaker is Principal Investigator of the Utrecht University ‘Follow the food: Leveraging Geographical Indications for Sustainability and Fairness’ Pathways to Sustainability Signature Project which includes the Bassetti Foundation amongst its partners, and co-author of the book chapter Do Geographical Indications Certify Origin and Quality?

The Seminar

In an introduction, Huysmans explained that geographical indicators (GIs)represent a collective form of intellectual property that is favoured and promoted by the EU (see the World Intellectual Property Organization Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications for an understanding of the underlying framework, a summary of which is available here).

His document analysis of the appearance of GIs in EU trade deals underpins his argument that agreements feature in these deals whose aims are to export and promote the idea of GIs as a valid trade strategy. The speaker also finds evidence of such promotion through development aid, raising questions about whether the aid approach followed by the EU has the unstated aim of buying political favour. The speaker however believes that the aims go further and deeper than this.

Huymans argues that evidence points to what he calls a race to orchestrate trade, a step beyond simple trade agreements that aims to influence and orchestrate broader frameworks and practices (and ways of thinking). The speaker finds direct evidence of aid targeting multi-lateral support for GI thinking which is aimed at convincing sceptics by demonstrating how well such a framework and understanding can work.

All of this is summarized in his novel theory: the European Union and several of its member states strategically use and orchestrate aid to support the establishment of Geographical Indications. As a result, the recipient countries’ material interests change and they become more supportive of GI protection in the global trade regime.

Huysmans brings in a very interesting second level of analysis. Using data on the regional allocation of development aid he analizes aid allocated to regional leaders’ birth regions, finding that these areas are disproportionately targeted and associated with a higher success rate in terms of changing multilateral policy stances.

During the presentation Huysmans also explained the importance of the definition of the geographical area that would be certified (an argument that Cristina Grasseni has written about extensively regarding the granting of GIs for cheese), and other social, economic and environmental effects brought about through this system. He offered the example of Basmati rice, raising questions about the sustainability of such large-scale production within a delineated area, and of tequila, in this case raising questions about social benefit.

Another question raised that will be of particular interest to our regular readers regards whether the GI system could be seen as having a negative effect on innovation, as the GI promotes and engrains existing practices. It is not just the area but also the process that must be followed that is documented in the GI.

Thoughts from the Floor

The seminar included a question and answer session that really gave insight into how a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data can be used to deepen the analysis even further. Several new areas for analysis and investigation were suggested, and it became very clear form these interactions that this issue can be analyzed from many different perspectives.

Many of the questions that we raise here in the Foundation about the relationship between innovation and power came to the surface (to whom will the power go?). Alongside post-colonial relations and questions about mutual benefit in accepting a format that has been exported from Europe, questions of responsibility also loom large in the Basmati and Tequila examples described.

Readers who are interested in an overview of scholarship around Geographical Indications can download this open access Springer publication Worldwide Perspectives on Geographical Indications, which includes the chapter mentioned above.