The European Union (EU) said on Thursday that the wine trade accord with the United States would protect EU wine names in its biggest and most valuable wine market.

"I am delighted we have managed to finalize this very important agreement, after 20 years of on-off negotiations," said Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, in a statement.

"This deal will remove the legal uncertainty which has hung over this trade for several years and benefit producers on both sides of the Atlantic." "The conclusion of this first-phase agreement will pave the way for future close cooperation with the US in the wine sector," she said.

The United States is EU's biggest market, importing EU wine worth about 2 billion euros (about 2.4 billion US dollars) in 2004.

Under the accord signed in Washington, the United States will change the status of EU wine names such as Burgundy, Champagne, Chablis, Chianti and Sherry currently considered semi-generic terms in the United States, and limit their use there.

In return, the EU will relax its rules regulating wine imports from the United States.

Source: Xinhua