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Deal or No Deal?: Japan ACTA Round Ends With Near Agreement

The Tokyo round of ACTA negotiations concluded earlier today with countries saying that they “resolved nearly all substantive issues and produced a consolidated and largely finalized text.”  Earlier reports from Reuters indicated that the latest round of ACTA negotiations in Tokyo, Japan has failed to produce an agreement.  That report indicated that there is still disagreement over scope, including geographical indications and patents.  A later report indicated that there was a basic agreement.

It is not clear whether the first report was simply wrong or a matter of interpretation. The final statement indicates that there will be no further rounds of negotiations, but there are still some substantive issues that need to be addressed with the countries promising to work expeditiously on them “with a view to finalizing the text of the agreement as promptly as possible.”  That sounds like there was no deal, but the countries have decided to declare victory anyway.  The statement promises to release the text shortly.

Update: A further report from Reuters has the USTR claiming victory, stating that they “are almost across the finish line” and that “in principle, we have found solutions, even on the most difficult issues. Nearly all of the parties embraced those solutions.”  Nearly all parties apparently does not include the EU.  A senior EU official is quoted as saying “we’ve come a long way but we must still close the remaining gaps without which there will be no agreement.”

16 Comments

  1. pat donovan says:

    actra? we don’t need no stinking actra
    saw the ad=spam above and felt compelled to respond.

    here’s a copy of a letter to thetyee.ca; the link has some actra comments in it.
    *************
    yo.

    we have an election going on here in ottawa…
    ( City hall spends back, as I call it.
    They ignore rep by pop and other democratic issues around here. Bigtime.)

    There are ALSO the rumors of a fed event swirling about. Autumn leaves, without the color, right?

    I have yet to see any pol.cartoons on ANY of the issues in any election.

    Newspapers and journalism is dying, mostly because they can’t handle the media event they helped create… Daily ed cartoons.

    SO…

    here’s some of mine.
    Art is an effort to satisfy an need not met, etc…

    woo. gotta watch where i copy this stuff from, eh?

    it’s on the youtube chanal as ‘artic’. thinking will be required.

    pat


    http://packrat.comicgenesis.com -comics
    http://www.youtube.com/area163 -film

  2. soo…
    Their being ambiguous about the results.
    When politicians do that, I forget…does it mean that they failed horribly? or that its gonna go horribly wrong for us?

  3. If it looks and walks and smells like a deal – and it does – than it could be a deal.

  4. Junji Hiroma says:

    Blaze..it’s going to get worse from October onwards
    Buckle up your seatbelt,the world is going for a nasty ride.

  5. The US have their balls in a sling on coming through on ACTA. Of course they are going to spin it positive. If the EU doesn’t sign though I don’t see how it is going to be worth that paper it’s printed on.

  6. “If the EU doesn’t sign though I don’t see how it is going to be worth that paper it’s printed on.”

    The EU already has adopted the Written Declaration 12 (and a another one way back in March), so it’s most likely that ACTA is doomed.

  7. Ralf Bendrath says:

    more details from Tokyo
    Heise news reports (with sources from Tokyo) that there is still disagreement between EU and US on enforcement measures and geo indications. Also reverse-engineering popped up as an issue, which is legal in the EU. Google translation

    It might well be the case that negotiators closed all smaller conflicts, but had to escalate the remaining ones. Rule of thumb: Never trust a press release from a host country of international negotiations (think of WSIS).

  8. Ralf Bendrath says:
  9. @junji hiroma
    well, that’s ok, I have decent survival skills.
    What I -am- worried about is “The Walking Dead” being interrupted in any way. That would suck.

  10. pat donovan says:

    treaties
    like free trade treaty with canada.. the US doesn’t always obey things it forces other counties to sign.

    want a few actra examples of this?

    packrat

  11. Laurel L. Russwurm says:

    if it was signed…
    …would they be acting coy?

    That everyone’s gone home to work on it means nobody has signed it.

    If the ACTA negotiations have “concluded” with everyone going home to work out the bits they can’t agree on, and no further negotiations to hammer out an agreeable agreement are planned, it isn’t likely to be signed. Unless of course the US is aiming weapons at the recalcitrant countries, in which case all bets are off.

    By putting a positive spin on it, the US makes it possible for news media to pretend it’s signed. http://whoacanada.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/acta-truth-or-pravda/

  12. US travel advisory…
    It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the USA issued the EU travel advisory to put pressure on the EU to cave and sign off on their ACTA objections.

  13. Just more misdirection from these people …
    “That sounds like there was no deal, but the countries have decided to declare victory anyway. The statement promises to release the text shortly.”

    If you look at the information released from the USTR on how to not disclose information while seeming to be open. This is more than likely yet another misdirecion on their part.

  14. GIs
    If we’re to believe all the reporting, there are only “minor” issues left. I’d be interested to see what compromise was made on geographic indicators and who compromised as this was very important to the EU. To my memory the US said they could not implement or enforce them (Something about not chaning their own laws) and the EU said they would walk away from ACTA if they were not included.

  15. Well here is one remaining petition worth signing….

    https://secure.avaaz.org/en/acta/?fp

  16. LoL
    Adios, ACTA! No deje que la puerta que golpeó a la salida