The EU, and by that I mean France, is deeply, deeply protectionist of its agriculture. It took the EU 11 years to decide on naming conventions for wine amongst EU countries - never mind export outside the eurozone. Its agricultural bloc is heavily subsidized and enjoys heavy foreign tariffs and extensive domestic subsidies. The whole "France hates our cheese/we're mean to the French cheesemakers" thing boils down to this: That's about the time you say "Only ze Franch no ze treu meaning of ze Brie!" before Wisconsin eats your lunch."Actually, just last year, the U.S. became the largest single country exporter of cheese in the world," she says.
France is what, the second largest exporter of agricultural products to the United States? It is a deeply-agricultural country, no doubt about that and many of the farms (at least in northern France) are family-owned and operated. I suppose this makes sense and any food that takes the name of something produced in France usually pales in comparison. "French" bread baked in America is generally a travesty. You could say the same thing about Brie, I suppose. Oh and hard cider. I was wondering if restricting name usage actually changes anything in terms of imports/exports and production and did some research into champagne. Looks like it does make a significant difference. Huh.
Changes things a crapton. The fact that the United States is the only country that attempts to call sparkling wine "champagne" has caused deep trade rifts. It's also limited American access to legit "sparkling wine" - I've had sparkling merlot, sparkling shiraz and sparkling something else and they were all australian, all delicious and all never seen again.
To be fair, this is for extremely good reason. The US is currently wrecking havoc on Latin American countries with its cheap-ass corn exports.Its agricultural bloc is heavily subsidized and enjoys heavy foreign tariffs and extensive domestic subsidies
It's perhaps getting off topic from the OP, and I can't say my knowledge of global agriculture is great. That said, my impression of the US food policy has been more one of economic aggression. Corn subsidies here have resulted in us off-loading excess onto other countries, throwing heavy a wrench into foreign markets.