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.
Canadian Heritage Memorandum, December 8, 2020, ATIP A-2020-00498
Bill C-10
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. […]
India Comes Out Swinging Against ACTA at WTO
The Government of India came out forcefully against ACTA this week in an intervention at the World Trade Organization. The India position, which may well reflect the views of other ACTA-excluded countries, demonstrates that ACTA is emerging as a contentious political issue that extends well beyond civil society and business groups concerned with the agreement. Countries excluded from the ACTA process have to come to recognize the serious threat it represents both substantively as well as for the future of multilateral organizations.
This growing concern from countries such as India represents a major new pressure point on the ACTA discussions. The notion that ACTA countries could negotiate an agreement that would ultimately be used to pressure non-ACTA countries to conform without attracting opposition from those very countries was always unrealistic. If the April ACTA round of talks was marked by the mounting pressure for greater transparency, the late June ACTA round of talks will undoubtedly have developing country opposition as its core concern.
India's intervention includes the following comments:
Australian Senator Kate Lundy on ACTA
Australian Senator Kate Lundy has posted a critique of ACTA, expressing concern about both its scope and secrecy. Lundy endorses the Wellington Declaration as a good standard to apply to any IP trade policy consideration.
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