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Shortly after independence in 1943, Lebanon acceded to the GATT as a founding member in 1947 and became a model for social and economic development in the Middle East. The country was unable to participate to the Uruguay Round negotiations due to the civil war, which ravaged the country and destroyed physical infrastructure and housing, displaced large portions of the population and weakened institutions. Lebanon thus formulated a request to negotiate its Accession to the WTO in 1999 under Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO.

Accession to the WTO is seen by the Lebanese Government, together with the conclusion of economic and trade agreements with its main partners, as a means to allow Lebanon to re-integrate the world economy and to increase trade and investment with regional and global players. It is further seen by the Government as a vehicle to modernize economic and trade regimes aimed at ensuring more competitive and transparent behaviour by economic actors.

The overarching goal of the Program is to facilitate Lebanon’s re-integration into the Multilateral Trading System, as a means to foster trade and investment with its regional and global partners. To this end, the Program provides advice at the Government’s request on the adequate measures in economic- and trade-related fields with a view to facilitating Lebanon’s successful accession to the WTO.

The advice provided strives to ensure that the inputs for the negotiations and policy options modernise economic and commercial frameworks aimed at a broad-based and inclusive economic and social development.

More specifically, the Program provides advice to the Government on approaches to the negotiations on market access for goods and services, as well as on the implementation of its obligations stemming from the various WTO agreements.

A Trade Policy Advice component, consisting of advice and analytical inputs (“backstopping”) to the Government with regard to various aspects of WTO disciplines (e.g. market access for goods and services, agriculture, state trading, licensing, non tariff measures). Under this component, IDEAS provides the requested assistance to the Ministry of Economy and Trade during the negotiation process.

Specific Technical Assistance components in sectors of key economic importance linked to the WTO Accession process. The exact scope of these components will be defined with the MOET in order to respond flexibly and rapidly to its specific needs during the Accession process. For example, assistance has been provided in the services negotiations both by external experts (monitored and coordinated by IDEAS Centre) and in-house capacity.

Republic of Lebanon Ministry of Economy and Trade, Directorate for International Relations ministeroffice@economy.gov.lb			State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO, WEHU Effingerstrasse 1 3003 Berne, Switzerland www.seco.admin.ch



			IDEAS Centre, Geneva Mr. Nicolas Imboden, Project Director Mr. Philippe Borel, Program Manager 10, rue de l’Arquebuse, 1204 Geneva - Switzerland Phone: +41 22 807 17 40 Fax : +41 22 807 17 41 philippe.borel@ideascentre.ch

Trade Policy Advice and Implementation Program: The protection of geographical indications in LEBANON 2005-2006

Financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)

Duration

The Program dates are September 2005 – December 2006.

Project Partners

Ministry of Economy and Trade (MOET), Beirut, Republic of Lebanon
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Berne, Switzerland

Implementing Agency

IDEAS Centre, Geneva

1. Background

Geographical Indicators (GIs) are defined as “indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin” (article 22.1 of the TRIPS Agreement). Agricultural products typically have qualities that derive from their place of production, are influenced by specific local factors, such as climate and soil and production methods. Whether a sign functions as a GI is a matter of national law and consumer perception.

GIs play an increasingly important role in a globalized world economy where food markets are more and more internationalized. They offer to producers a useful marketing tool as their products’ obtain market recognition and often a higher price.

Lack of adequate protection for GIs is not only detrimental to producers as it affects the reputation of their products and may nullify the investments made to build up and maintain this reputation, but also to consumers who are deceived as to the quality standard and the origin that they expect.

GIs can play a significant role in the rural development of developing countries as they are likely to increase the revenues of farmers and contribute to employment. More and more developing countries express a strong interest for GIs (cf Darjeeling tea in India, nuoc mam in Vietnam). Further, GIs are also often linked to non-commercial considerations, such as the protection and transfer of particular production knowledge, the protection of the environment and landscapes.

Lebanon has numerous high quality agricultural products, such as olive oil, fruits, wine and milk products, as well as handicrafts. In order to take full benefit of these products’ reputation, Lebanon has been taking steps to develop a strategy in this field with a view to elaborating the necessary legislation and ensuring an effective protection of its GIs.

2. Overall Goal and Content

The project’s objective is to contribute to the Government’s efforts to define a strategy for an adequate protection of GIs in Lebanon. In an initial phase of the project, an international expert was selected to implement the project under IDEAS Centre’s guidance. Two local junior Lebanese experts have been selected to assist with the creation of an inventory of potential GIs in Lebanon, the provision of information to relevant stakeholders and research into existing legislation on the protection of GIs. Their collaboration seeks to provide capacity building in this field to the MOET. In a subsequent phase, and in the light of the field research conducted on Lebanese products, a draft law on the protection of GIs will be prepared by Lebanese juridical experts for the MOET. It is foreseen that IDEAS Centre will contribute to efforts to raise awareness among relevant stakeholders about the draft legislation in cooperation with efforts by the MOET. The ultimate measure of the success of the program would be the registration of Lebanese products for the protection of their geographical indication.

3. Objectives

The Program aims at:

		Creating an inventory of Lebanese products which could benefit from the protection of their geographical indication.;

		Providing information to relevant stakeholders as to the possible developmental and commercial benefits of GIs;

		Increasing the capacity of the MOET on intellectual property issues generally and specifically on Geographical Indicators through the training and on-job work of two junior professionals;

		Proposing a possible legislative approach for GIs adapted to Lebanese local conditions and in conformity with (foreseen) WTO obligations.

4. Activities

The Program consists of two main components with related activities:

A Training and Research component which consists of training the Lebanese junior experts in the methods and criteria used in Europe in determining geographical indications. In Lebanon, these experts have sought to identify Lebanese products which might benefit from the protection of their geographical indication. This involves mainly fieldwork to interview producers and identify production methods with a view to establishing a fact-sheet for each product.

A legislative proposal which is to be drafted in conjunction with local legal experts and the legal advisors of the MOET for submission to a national committee on geographical indicators. Ideas Centre may also provide support to the MOET in terms of the awareness campaigns among stakeholders with an interest in this legislation.

Status Report This program began in 2005 with the selection of the Senior expert and two junior experts (a lawyer and an agricultural engineer). These two experts traveled to Geneva to take an intensive training course in Geographical Indications, in which they traveled through the French-speaking region of Switzerland, South-western France and Northern Spain to learn how products which benefit from GIs in Switzerland and the European Union are produced. Under the guidance of the senior expert, these professionals in 2006 have begun to gather product information on various Lebanese products to determine whether these products could be the subject of a geographical indicator. They have also begun preparatory work for a draft law on geographical indicators.

Republic of Lebanon Ministry of Economy and Trade, Directorate for International Relations ministeroffice@economy.gov.lb			State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO, WEHU Effingerstrasse 1 3003 Berne, Switzerland www.seco.admin.ch



AGRIDEA Swiss Centre for Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Mr. Frédéric Brand, Senior Expert Geographical Indication Network Jordils 1 / Po box 128 1000 Lausanne 6 – Switzerland www.srva.ch			IDEAS Centre Mr. Nicolas Imboden, Project Director Mr. Philippe Borel, Program Manager 10, rue de l’Arquebuse, 1204 Geneva - Switzerland Phone: +41 22 807 17 40 Fax : +41 22 807 17 41 philippe.borel@ideascentre.ch