Technical norms for Geographical Indications and their reflexes for the wine sector

Abstract

Does the establishment of technical standards for a geographical indication (GI) help in its sustainable development for the wine sector? Based on this question the present work aims to analyse the technical norms already published by the Brazilian Association of Technical Norms – ABNT, with the objective of examining if these can help in the structuring, recognition and sustainable development of the GI in Brazil. Two standards have already been published: Brazilian Standard ABNT NBR n. 16.479-2016 – Geographical Indication – Terminology; And the Brazilian Standard ABNT NBR n. 16.536-2016 – Geographical Indication – Guidelines for structuring a Geographical Indication for product. A technical standard dealing with the control of GI and a technical standard dealing with the GI management system are being elaborated. Considering the still recent publication of the standards, it was verified at the first moment the impossibility of investigating what would be the effective impacts of the technical norms in the wine-growing GI, as initially proposed. However, there is a gain that would not initially be considered: it was possible to systematize the best practices of GI available in Brazil through the elaboration of standards already published and those in the publication phase.