Make it 1000%!
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of 125% on the US, up from the 84% announced earlier.
It doled out $6 million to support NZ manuka honey producers' legal case to trademark the name 'manuka', which has again been lost.
New Zealand's trademarks commissioner has declined the Government and iwi-backed bid by NZ honey producers to trademark the term "manuka honey".
It ruled that the term was not sufficiently inherently distinct for any one group or company to own it.
This follows on from a similar failed case in the UK and China where New Zealand's Mānuka Honey Appellation Society attempt to assert ownership of the brand was also defeated.
Thus far, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor has declined to say whether the Government will support an appeal of this latest decision.
