100. The representative of South Africa said that the hypothetical case given by New Zealand was a factual one in his country. South Africa was a producer and exporter of "feta", a generic term in its territory. Currently the European Communities, which had been its main export market until recently, were now blocking such exports and sending South African producers threatening letters. Under the TRIPS Agreement, the South African producers had the right to make use of the generic term "feta" and export this cheese to the European Communities. Therefore, if this proposed EC registration system were accepted, the case to stop South African feta cheese from entering the EC market would in fact be further strengthened, a situation which led his delegation to consider the proposal as unacceptable.
