Ms Suzanne Drisdelle:

I will answer that, Chairman. I thank Senator Keogan as I was hoping somebody would ask this question. It is one of the technical areas I am more familiar with. When we were engaged with several Irish business groups last fall, this issue came up, and especially with regard to Irish cream liqueur which has a protected geographic indication in Canada. We engaged several legal counsel and lawyers in Brussels and Canada to help Irish producers understand how they can action their geographic indication, GI, protection in Canada. What came out of that discussion - we reached out directly and had a round-table with several producers - is that the EU system for geographic indications is different from Canada's and there had been an understanding that it worked the same way. It is through our intellectual property, IP, system in Canada and it requires the producer to action its rights under the geographic indication.

For example, with Irish cream liqueur, what is required is for those producers to produce a cease and desist letter or to address the matter with producers in Canada. GIs are not very common in Canada and we are not as familiar with them. We do not have a history, as the European Union does, with GIs. This is why, in many cases, it would be just a matter of informing producers in Canada, who may not even be aware that they are imitating something that is protected, such as Irish cream liqueur in this case. In many jurisdictions where this has been the case and a letter was sent to the producer in Canada, it usually helped in over 80% of the cases.

This is an area in which we are well versed. We are very keen to ensure that Irish producers take advantage of this and as has been mentioned, there are others that will probably request GI protection. We would be very pleased to work with producers to help them understand the Canadian system so they can action their rights under that system.