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"This document does not make sense nor does it serve national interests. To the contrary, it enables Canada, after 2015, to sell white cheese under the name "feta" or "feta type cheese," George Kasapidis said, adding that this development is threatening nearly 400,000 existing jobs secured in the production of feta as well as 150,000 potential jobs that would be created due to a possible increase in the exportation of the product.
 
For her part Angeliki Gerekou stressed that the agreement with Canada contains many unclear points and she asked if there was actually room for political negotiations or not. She also stated that "a substantive dialogue on all products with protected designation of origin should begin in connection with the issue of feta cheese in order for the added value of our agricultural heritage to increase."

Paris Moutsinas sharply criticized the responsible ministers, pointing out, "The parliament was not even informed about issues that are threatening serious national interests."

Professor of agronomy Emmanuel Anifandakis (former chairman of the National Dairy Commission) spoke of the need to establish an inter-branch organisation of feta cheese. He supported the initiative of the deputies, noting that "the agreement in question is in no case in Greece’s favour."

Agricultural subsidies

Another difficult task of the Greek delegation to the ninth meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Indonesia will be connected with retaining the common EU agricultural policy in its current form, especially in the part concerning agricultural subsidies.

During the negotiations of the World Trade Organisation, there has been a continuous "war" between rich and poor countries in recent years.

Rich countries (mainly EU member states) want to retain the protective measures for the maintenance of their agricultural sectors.

Poor countries, whose economies are mainly agricultural (India, North Africa, Latin America), have been pushing for the elimination of protectionism in order for the markets to open for their goods.

Land transport

Finally, another important issue on the agenda of the meeting which concerns Greece will be transit trade and the transit of land transport, in particular.

As emphasized by Deputy Minister Mitarakis, at this point, Greece will try to push for the liberalisation of transit land transportation of goods only on the basis of bilateral agreements that will take into account the local specificities in terms of environment and traffic.

He explained that this issue is particularly important because of the intensified transit traffic of vehicles in the region of Thrace at which Turkey, which does not comply with the EU safety regulations, is aiming.