27 October 2021 12:47 am Views - 284
Cabinet consent was given to the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) to enter into necessary agreements to secure technical assistance of France’s inclusive public development bank, Agence Francuise de Developpment (AFD) to facilitate the process of registering the Geographical Indicator (GI) for Ceylon Tea.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers on Monday green lighted the proposal by the Plantations Minister Ramesh Pathirana to enter into a tripartite agreement among AFD, CIRAD and SLTB to secure the agreed technical support.
The SLTB secured registrations for seven major agro-climatic regional teas locally in 2011 after obtaining registration for ‘Ceylon Tea’ as a Certification Mark.
The GI registration under the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement is expected to prevent counterfeiting and reduce the misuse of Ceylon Tea with a high level of protection while ensuring consumers with authentic/genuine Ceylon Tea products. This is in particular given the difficult and expensive task of surveillance and prevention of illegal usage of Ceylon Tea name world-wide.
“According to the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, the indication given to identify a product produced within the territory of a member state or in a regional area within that territory is called a geographical indication.
A geographical indicator protects the product from misuse or imitation of the registered name and protects the customer by guaranteeing the true origin of the product,” the Government Information Department noted.
In addition, it would also enable the flexibility of differentiating products in the global market while enhancing value, and offering stakeholders with a better price.