What
is Geographical Indication?
GEOGRAPHICAL
indications
( GIs) are names that are used to identify and commercialize natural
agricultural products and foodstuffs, wines and spirit, as well as other
traditionally made products such as handicrafts. Examples include Argane, Café
de Colombia, Pochampally ikat, Champagne, Darjeeling tea, Parmigiano Reggiano,
and Pisco. These products are deeply rooted in a given geographical and
cultural environment. The unique qualities and characteristics of such products
depend fundamentally on their geographical origin by virtue of the climate,
soil composition, human and other factors.
Through GIs, products are
differentiated based on their geographical origin. GIs are regulated by
national laws. Public authorities fix and oversee the conditions under which a
GI is conferred, maintained, and protected against imitations and
appropriation. Public authorities also oversee the framework that ensures
quality control, again with various degrees of involvement and effectiveness
depending on the legal system chosen to protect GIs at national level.
Although there are a number of
different definitions of GIs, the concept underlying each of them depends on
the identity and uniqueness of products that are rooted in well defined
geographical and cultural areas.
The Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ( TRIPS) of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) provides the first internationally accepted definition of
GIs. They 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”. Another definition of GIs can be
found in the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellation of Origin and
their International Registration, adopted in 1958 under the auspices of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
According to Article 2 of the
Agreement, an “Appellation of Origin”(AO) is ”the geographical name of a
country, region, or locality, which serves to designate a product originating
therein, the quality and characteristics of which are due exclusively or
essentially to the geographical environment, including natural and human
factors.” While the concept of an AO are provided in the Lisbon Agreement is
narrow than that of GIs contained in the TRIPS Agreement, the underlying idea
is the following: they are geographical names used to identify goods that can
only be produced in a given geographical and cultural zone. The environment, by
virtue of its soil composition, climate, biodiversity, local know-how and other
human factors, confers specific characteristics on these products that make
them unique.
The quality and characteristics
linked to the geographical origin of a product must be sufficiently specific to
differentiate it from other goods. The concept of quality can defined in
relation to the product’s nutritional properties, flavor, appearance, or the
process and raw materials used to produce it. The product’s characteristics can
be determined by various standards, such as physical/chemical and or
organoleptic traits. Reputation refers to the opinion consumers have of a given
product; this generally requires a substantial period of time to be formed.
Natural factors such as climate,
soils, local breeds and plant varities, and traditional equipment, as well as
and human factors such as know-how and traditional knowledge, play a key role
in forming the quality, characteristics, and reputation of origin products.
GHANA has a basket
of potential products that can be developed into GIs, among these products
include; Ghana
Cocoa, Ghana Fine Flavour Cocoa, Kente Cloth (non agricultural), Shama shea butter, Shama Yam, Sugarloaf Pineapple (Central region), Chocho Tea, Zomi Palm Oil
and some Kasapraku products. It is known fact that some of our West African
brothers come into the country buy some of these products and go back to their
country and rebrand the product by changing the origin of the product to theirs
and make huge profits whiles our poor farmers continue to lavish in poverty. A
classical example is the zomi palm oil from Ghana that has been rebranded by
our Nigerian brothers and sold in the international markets as a product from
Nigeria. Even in our local markets, most
market women sell ordinary yams to consumers as PUNNA and charge them higher.
Because of the known qualities of the PUNNA, everyone wants to buy it. These products are already known in our
markets, both local and international us products of unique quality. The onus
therefore lies on the stakeholders especially the government to lay the
foundation for some of these products to be developed into GIs. In order to
leverage most of the Ghanaian populist who are lavishing in poverty since the
agriculture sector employs over 60% of the Ghanaian populist.
