Progress Made in ACTA Negotiations

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

07 July 2010

The ninth round of negotiations on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was held in Lucerne, Switzerland from June 28 to July 1, was said to have continued constructive work and made progress in building consensus in a number of areas.

Participants in the negotiations included Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.

The draft of the ACTA was released in April this year after two years of behind-the-scenes negotiation and scrutiny by the parties involved. This time, in the interest of transparency, the Swiss government hosted meetings on the first day of negotiations at which ACTA negotiators met to exchange views with representatives of civil society who had expressed an interest in the agreement.

According to a statement issued after the negotiations, discussions on the scope of intellectual property rights covered in the ACTA also provided an improved understanding of the respective views on that issue. It was emphasized, however, that, while ACTA aims at establishing effective enforcement standards for existing intellectual property rights, it is not intended to include new intellectual property rights or to enlarge or diminish existing intellectual property rights.

Participants stressed the importance of the ACTA as “an agreement that will establish an international framework for their efforts to more effectively combat the proliferation of counterfeiting and piracy, which undermines legitimate trade and the sustainable development of the world economy.”

Nevertheless, it was said that the ACTA will not interfere with a signatory’s ability to respect fundamental rights and liberties. It will, for example, be consistent with the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

Participants in the meeting agreed that the next meeting would be hosted by the US. They also reaffirmed their commitment to continue their work with the aim of concluding the ACTA as soon as possible in 2010.

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