Geographical Indication Regulation and Intra-Trade in the European Union

Protection of indications of geographical origin (GIs) can reduce information asymmetry between producers and consumers, and potentially enhance trade. However, GIs can also possibly divert trade. We rely on panel data about agri-food trade among the 27 countries of the European Union to investigate these issues using variations of estimators proposed by Head and Mayer (2000) and Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2006). Our findings suggest that the protection of GIs creates trade when the importing and exporting countries have GI-protected products. There is also empirical evidence regarding a trade-diverting effect when the importing country does not have GIs and a border enlargement effect arising from European GI-protection.