The SAFETY Act of 2025 ensures U.S. food and agricultural producers can continue using established common product names in foreign markets despite international restrictions.
Dusty Johnson
Representative
SD
The SAFETY Act of 2025 aims to protect American agricultural and food exporters by legally safeguarding their right to use common product names in foreign markets. It establishes a clear definition for "common name," explicitly listing many existing U.S. food, wine, and beer terms that are protected from foreign restrictions. Furthermore, the bill mandates that U.S. trade representatives actively negotiate to ensure these common names remain usable in all future international trade agreements.
New SAFETY Act Protects U.S. Exporters' Right to Use Names Like 'Feta,' 'Gruyere,' and 'IPA' in Foreign Markets
The newly introduced Safeguarding American Food and Export Trade Yields Act of 2025, or the SAFETY Act, tackles a surprisingly contentious issue in international trade: what we call our food and drinks. At its core, the bill ensures that U.S. agricultural producers can keep using common, widely understood names for their products—like American cheese, Parmesan, or India Pale Ale—when they sell them overseas, even if other countries try to claim those names exclusively.
The Name Game: Why This Matters to Exporters
This section of the SAFETY Act amends the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to create a clear, legal definition of a “common name” for trade purposes. Think of it this way: some countries want to restrict the use of names like 'Feta' or 'Asiago' only to producers within their borders, arguing they are specific geographical indicators. This bill pushes back, stating that for U.S. exporters, these names are simply generic product descriptors. The bill provides a long list of names that automatically count as common names, including many cheeses (like Monterey Jack, Ricotta, and Salami), and popular beer styles (like Stout, Porter, and Pilsener). If you’re a small craft brewery in the U.S. trying to export your Hefeweizen, this bill aims to ensure you don’t get blocked by foreign labeling rules.
Protecting the Basics, Carving Out the Classics
To figure out if a name is truly “common,” the Secretary of Agriculture can look at reliable sources, including dictionaries and “trustworthy websites that report market information.” While this reliance on potentially subjective sources introduces a bit of vagueness, the intent is to ground the definition in actual market usage. The bill’s protection is broad, but it makes a specific, important carve-out for wine. For wine, the bill explicitly states that a “common name” excludes any official “appellation of origin” (think Champagne or Bordeaux) that is already protected under federal regulations (27 CFR part 9, subpart C). This means the bill is focused on protecting generic terms like “Tawny” or “Vintage,” not challenging the protected status of specific, geographically tied names.
What This Means for Trade Talks
This isn't just about labels; it's about trade policy. The SAFETY Act mandates that the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) must actively use this new legal framework when negotiating trade deals—bilateral or multilateral. Their job is to fight for the right of U.S. producers to use these common names globally, ensuring market access isn't shut down by restrictive naming conventions. To keep everyone accountable, the bill requires the Secretary and USTR to report back to key Congressional committees every six months on the progress of these negotiations. For the average person, this means the government is now legally obligated to prioritize and defend the branding rights of U.S. food and beverage exporters in every major trade discussion.