The move will guarantee that consumers buy genuine goods, such as Maotai Liquor, Shaoxing Wine and Longjing Tea, said Liu Zhaobin, director of the administration's Department of Policy, Legislation, Publicity and Education, at an EU-China Training Seminar on Geographic Indication Protection.

The seminar opened yesterday in Beijing.

Under a definition from Europe, geographic indication protection means to protect farm produce or food products which are made in certain areas and are marked with the name of the region to distinguish it from other counterparts. Manufacturing of these products must be within the region.

Some products have been imitated by domestic and foreign counterfeiters, said Liu.

Longjing Tea has been copied in nearly 20 provinces, according to Liu.

He attributed this to the lack of legal systems which protect geographic indication products.

To guarantee that consumers get the real taste and a healthier flavor of wine, tea or other native products, the country has tightened supervision on the manufacturers of geographic indication products for the whole process of production and sale, said Liu.

On the basis of co-operation with the European Union (EU), especially France, China has implemented Regulations for Protecting Geographic Indication Products since 1999.

To date, the country has put 13 products, including Shaoxing Wine, Maotai Liquor and Longjing Tea, under the geographic indication protection.

These regulations have greatly helped protect producers' rights. For instance, sales of Shaoxing Wine in Japan increased 14 per cent last year from 1999, said Liu.

In an interview, Ambroise Auge, an official with the French Bureau of National Profession of Cognac, made comments on China's long history of geographic indication products.

"The only problem is that we have not legally recognized (those products)," said Auge.

He said more work was needed to achieve mutual recognition of Chinese and EU geographic indication products.

(China Daily 08/29/2001)