ACTA Text To Be Made Public

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

19 April 2010

The countries participating in the negotiations for an Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have agreed to make a draft text of the discussions available to the public, amid growing protest over the secrecy within which the talks are being conducted.

In a joint statement released by the negotiators at the conclusion of the 8th round of talks on the proposed agreement in Wellington, it was revealed that "there was a general sense from this session that negotiations have now advanced to a point where making a draft text available to the public will help the process of reaching a final agreement."

"For that reason, and based on the specific momentum coming out of this meeting, participants have reached unanimous agreement that the time is right for making available to the public the consolidated text coming out of these discussions, which will reflect the substantial progress made at this round," informed the statement.

It is intended that the text will be released on April 21. However, in agreeing to release publicly this draft text, the participants "reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of their respective positions in trade negotiations."

The statement also stressed that "ACTA will not interfere with a signatory’s ability to respect its citizens' fundamental rights and liberties, and will be consistent with the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and will respect the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health."

"There is no proposal to oblige ACTA participants to require border authorities to search travellers’ baggage or their personal electronic devices for infringing materials. In addition, ACTA will not address the cross-border transit of legitimate generic medicines," the joint statement said.

"While the participants recognize the importance of responding effectively to the challenge of Internet piracy, they confirmed that no participant is proposing to require governments to mandate a ‘graduated response’ or ‘three strikes’ approach to copyright infringement on the Internet," the statement added.

ACTA would be a new multilateral agreement to strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property rights and combat counterfeiting and piracy of goods such as clothing of luxury brands, music, and films. Participants in the negotiations include Australia, Canada, the European Union, represented by the European Commission, the EU Presidency (Spain) and EU member states, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States of America.

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