[Ip-health] White House: ACTA still "secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy"

[James Love]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/07/31/whitehouse-denies-foia-acta/

White House: ACTA still "secret in the interest of national defense or
foreign policy"
By James Love, on July 31st, 2009

On Thursday, July 30, 2009, the White House office of the United States
Trade Representative denied release of 4 new proposals for text that
were circulated in July to "all countries" in the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The request was limited to
documents that were prepared in the past 90 days for purpose of
discussion at the July 2009 ACTA negotiating meeting held in Morocco.

USTR located 4 such documents, but denied the FOIA request under 5 USC
552(b)(1). The specific exception cited reads as follows:

[documents may be withheld if they are]

(1)(A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an
Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or
foreign policy and (B) are in fact properly classified pursuant to such
Executive order;

A copy of the new USTR foia ACTA denial is here:
http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/5/ustr_acta_foia_30jul09.pdf


--
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org | mailto:james.love at keionline.org
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