November 28, 2007

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Chinese' tequila worries Mexico

It is bad enough that the Chinese have thoroughly hollowed out the American industrial economy, now they want to steal the Mexican soul.


BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Chinese' tequila worries Mexico: "he lower house of Congress voted to urge the government to stop Chinese firms patenting maguey - a type of agave cactus used in tequila. MPs are also worried that Chinese and Japanese firms could target the market in another cactus species, nopal. Nopal leaves are increasingly popular in the US, where there is already strong demand for tequila. 'Nopal and Maguey are Mexican plants and if we don't take the necessary measures in time, we run the risk of losing the denomination of origin', Cesar Duarte, the deputy who sponsored the move, told the Efe news agency. Mr Duarte said the main Mexican farmers' union had been told that Chinese firms had begun legal moves to register the nopal plant with the European Commission as a Chinese product."

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