-Caveat Lector- forwarded... Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com http://www.ioa.com/~davehart -----Original Message----- By Kevin Drawbaugh, European Consumer Goods Correspondent LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Another trans-Atlantic trade dispute -- this one over Cuban rum, rather than bananas or beef -- is scheduled to enter negotiations in Geneva on Monday. On the face of it the spat looks minor. Spirits producers Bacardi-Martini and Pernod-Ricard are fighting over a trademark and one will win. But larger implications loom. At the heart of the struggle is an obscure U.S. law, Section 211, adopted last year and shortly afterward made the target of a formal complaint by the EU to the World Trade Organization. On Monday, U.S. and EU trade delegates will begin talks on the complaint. If they cannot work out a friendly compromise, a two-year process of committee and appeal may result. Worse, trade lawyers said, an outcome displeasing to Cuban President Fidel Castro could jeopardise hundreds of U.S. trademarks in Cuba, raise questions about intellectual property rights and stir more U.S.-EU trade trouble following recent strife over the EU banana regime and hormone-treated U.S. beef. ``This is not on the scale of the bananas or the beef debates ... But these trademark disputes are becoming more and more important around the world,'' said Paul Brenton, trade economist at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. The Cuban rum fight traces back to the 19th century in Cuba, when the Arechabala family created Havana Club rum. The brand gained global stature by the 1930s and helped nurture the association that studies show consumers worldwide still make between the sugar-cane liquor and the Caribbean island nation. After Castro's 1959 Cuban revolution, the Arechabalas fled to exile in Spain and America. Castro seized their rum business and the Havana Club name faded away. Rum, of course, did not. Today, it is the world's third biggest-selling liquor after vodka and whiskey. And rum made by the Bacardis, another Cuban exile family, is not only the world's top-selling rum by far, but the biggest-selling spirit brand of any type. The $1.5 billion U.S. market is the world's biggest and Bacardi controls half of it. Elsewhere, Bacardi also leads, but it has been challenged lately by a revived Havana Club, which was relaunched in 1994 by a joint venture formed by France's Pernod and a Cuban state company. Havana Club cannot be sold in the United States because the U.S. government has banned all Cuban goods since 1962. But the embargo, opposed by most nations, looks increasingly shaky. If it ends, Pernod wants to be ready to challenge Bacardi in the U.S. rum market, but its position has been eroded by recent struggles that have led to Monday's upcoming talks in Geneva. To preempt any U.S. inroads by Pernod's Havana Club, Bacardi in 1996 began selling a Bahamian rum in the United States under the same name. The Pernod-Cuban group immediately sued for trademark infringement in U.S. District Court in New York. At roughly the same time, Bacardi allies in Washington wrote Section 211 and slipped it to the massive 1998 U.S. budget bill, allowing it to win Congressional approval with little attention. Section 211 prohibits U.S. registration by Cuban nationals of any trademarks formerly used by Cuban businesses that were confiscated by the Cuban government without compensation. The law forced the New York court to throw out the infringement lawsuit filed by Pernod and its Cuban partners in April, but an appeal is pending, said Pierre-Marie Chateauneuf, Pernod vice president, administration and law. ``We expect to have a final judgment from the court of appeals by the end of the year,'' he said. In the meantime, the EU working on Pernod's behalf in July filed its complaint with the WTO against Section 211. The EU and Pernod contend that the law violates trade treaties. ``We are being deprived of our trademark in the U.S.,'' said Alain-Serge Delaitte, spokesman for France's Pernod. ``What we want and what the EU wants is the repeal of Section 211 ... It's unfair and violates international law on intellectual property.'' Bermuda-based Bacardi in a statement said Section 211 is ``entirely consistent with all international treaties.'' It said, ``Pernod-Ricard has pressured the EU into filing a claim with the WTO in an attempt to politicise a purely civil dispute.'' No WTO decision is expected for many months in the spat, but one that goes against the Pernod-Cuba group could jeopardise hundreds of U.S. trademarks registered in Cuba. Castro has hinted as much in recent remarks. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has expressed concern and questioned Section 211. ``Our hope is obviously that this whole thing can be resolved at consultation'' next week or shortly later, said Peter Schneidereit, legal counsel for Bacardi in Washington. If it can't, he said, the dispute could grind on for years. ================================= *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. *** DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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