Negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement resume today in Lucerne, Switzerland with the ninth round of talks. I'll have several ACTA posts this week, but start with a talk I gave earlier this month at a conference on ACTA at the American University, Washington College of Law. The posted version […]
Post Tagged with: "anti-counterfeiting trade agreement"
ACTA Communique Generates Wide Support
With the ACTA talks scheduled to resume next week, a communique arising from last week's meeting in Washington has generated very broad support with hundreds of individuals and organizations signing on and the media covering the story.
ACTA Emergency Communique: Add Your Name Today
Last week, I had the honour of delivering the opening keynote address at a conference on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement held in Washington. The event brought together over 90 academics, practitioners and public interest organizations from five continents at American University Washington College of Law. The resulting papers are among the most comprehensive anywhere on the implications of ACTA for countries around the world.
I plan to post my presentation shortly, but with negotiations scheduled to resume next week of greater urgency is a draft statement the reflects the conclusion of the meeting. The statement is now open to endorsements. Please read and consider adding your name to it by the deadline of Wednesday, June 23rd at 9:00 am by visiting the PIJIP site or emailing acta.declaration@gmail.com. A draft is posted below:
Agenda For Round Nine of ACTA Talks Posted
The agenda for the ninth round of ACTA talks scheduled for Lucerne, Switzerland from June 28 – July 1st. All the major issues – civil enforcement, criminal provisions, Internet issues, and border measures – are on the agenda. The agenda includes two elements that suggest considerable progress has been made. […]
WTO Report on TRIPS Council and ACTA
The World Trade Organization has posted further information on last week's Council meeting where India, China, and other developing countries raised concerns with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The report notes the following:
Briefly, China’s and India’s lengthy statements argued that ACTA and other agreements could:
- Conflict with TRIPS Agreement (a reference to TRIPS Art.1.1) and other WTO agreements, and cause legal uncertainty
- Undermine the balance of rights, obligations and flexibilities that were carefully negotiated in the various WTO agreements
- Distort trade or create trade barriers, and disrupt goods in transit or transhipment
- Undermine flexibilities built into TRIPS (such as for public health, and trade in generic medicines)
- Undermine governments’ freedom to allocate resources on intellectual property by forcing them to focus on enforcement
- Set a precedent that would require regional and other agreements to follow suit. (One example cited was negotiations involving CARIFORUM, the group of Caribbean states. However, a delegation representing CARIFORUM said it understood the concerns but denied that CARIFORUM would have to apply ACTA’s provisions.)
They also argued that the focus on enforcement did not take into account a country’s level of development. A number of developing countries broadly supported the concern.
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