WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is joining a bipartisan group of colleagues to urge the Department of Agriculture and the United States Trade Representative to reject recent efforts by the European Union to restrict the export of commonly named meats.

The Senator’s letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman called for continued action against the EU’s growing efforts to use what is known as “geographical indication” as a means to restrict U.S. meat exports around the globe, particularly to nations with which the U.S. already has free trade agreements.

“This trade barrier is of great concern to meat and other food manufacturers in our states,” the Senators wrote. “We urge you to continue to push back against the EU’s efforts to restrict our meat exports, particularly to nations with which we already have free trade agreements.”

“In country after country, the EU has been using its FTAs to persuade trading partners to impose barriers to U.S. exports under the guise of protecting geographical indications (GI),” the Senators continued. “We ask that USTR and USDA continue to work aggressively to ensure the EU’s GI efforts on commonly used meat product names do not impair the ability of U.S. businesses to compete both domestically and internationally. We ask you to make this a top priority through official TTIP, Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and bilateral negotiations.”

The EU is attempting to block products using certain place names as part of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. However, many of the place names represent styles of meats that have long been produced in the United States, to the point that they have become functionally generic, such as “black forest ham,” “wiener schnitzel,” “bologna,” and “bratwurst.” If the European Union were successful, it could severely harm the U.S. meat industry.

Last month, McCaskill joined a bipartisan group of colleagues in urging the U.S. trade agencies to reject efforts by the EU to restrict the export of commonly named cheeses.