A new agreement governing wine trade between Australia and the European Union, signed in December 2008, enters into force on 1 September, replacing the one signed in 1994. It safeguards the EU’s wine labelling regime, gives full protection to the Union’s geographical indications and includes a clear Australian commitment to protect traditional EU denominations.

The agreement provides for the immediate protection of other EU geographical indications for wines. For the use of some terms, phase-out periods have been agreed. In particular, Australian producers will not be able to continue the use of important EU names, such as ‘champagne’, ‘port’, ‘sherry’ and other geographical indications, along with some traditional expressions, such as, ‘Amontillado’, ‘Claret’ and ‘Auslese’ from 1 September 2011 onwards, ie one year after the entry into force of the agreement.

The new agreement also lists optional particulars that may be used by Australian wines (ie an indication of vine varieties, an indication relating to an award, medal or competition, an indication relating to a specific colour, etc) and regulates the indication of vine varieties on wine labels. It outlines the conditions for Australian wine producers to continue to use a number of quality wine terms, such as ‘vintage’, ‘cream’ and ‘tawny’ to describe Australian wines exported to Europe and sold domestically.

In 2009, EU wine exports to Australia were worth €68 million and Australian exports to the EU were worth €643 million.

The agreement is available at ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets/wine/third/index_en.htm