Department of State,
Washington, December 27, 1996.
No. 425.][Inclosure.]
The Secretary of
Agriculture to the Secretary of
State.
Department of Agriculture,
Washington, December 17, 1996.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your communication of the 30th ultimo, inclosing a copy
of a protest from the Leghorn Chamber of Commerce and Arts
transmitted through the Italian ambassador. In reply, I beg to say
that the notice which was given out by our Boston laboratory
relative to a shipment of oil designated as Lucca oil and not
manufactured in the immediate neighborhood of Lucca was based on
inforamtion which the department had received that the Lucca oil was
understood to be that manufactured in the locality mentioned.
The statement of S. Rae & Co., in a pamphlet circulated by this
firm, marked “Prima arborum,” on page 24, is as follows:
No olive oil produced elsewhere in Italy, or in any part of France,
can compare with the best Tuscan oil, which it is the privilege of
the neighboring provinces of Lucca and Pisa to produce. The other
sections of Tuscany, namely, Florence, Siena, and Grosseto, produce
good qualities, but not equal to the oils of Lucca and Pisa.
From the information recently received through your department from
various consular officers it appears that the present contention of
S. Rae & Co. is correct and that the statement taken from their
advertising matter is untrue. As far as practicable it is the desire
of this department to restrict the use of geographical names to
their proper meaning. It is not intended, however, that an unfair
decision shall be made, and pending further inquiry in the matter,
no objection will be made to Tuscan olive oil branded as Lucca
oil.
I have, etc.,
