[Ip-health] Joint Statement of countries negotiating ACTA: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/fo/pres=
s-release-communique.aspx

Joint Statement: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

June 12, 2009
Joint Statement

1. Australia, Canada, the European Union and its Member States, Japan,
the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore,
Switzerland and the United States today announced that they are moving
forward on the negotiation of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
(ACTA) to step up the fight against global counterfeiting and piracy.

2. The participants in the ACTA negotiations will next meet in Morocco
in July to continue their discussions with a view to reaching an
agreement in 2010. Today=92s announcement emphasizes the participants=92
goal to combat global infringements of intellectual property
rights(IPR), particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy,
by increasing international cooperation, strengthening the framework
of practices that contribute to effective enforcement, and
strengthening relevant IPR enforcement measures themselves.

3. In addition, the ACTA negotiators reaffirmed the importance of
information disclosure on the progress on ACTA to the public.

Background

4. Negotiations on the ACTA began in June 2008. The objective of the
ACTA negotiations is to negotiate a new, state-of-the art agreement to
combat counterfeiting and piracy. The Parties negotiating the
agreement include Australia, Canada, the European Union and its 27
Member States, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South
Korea, Switzerland and the United States. When it is finalized, the
ACTA is intended to assist in the efforts of governments around the
world to more effectively combat the proliferation of counterfeit and
pirated goods, which undermines legitimate trade and the sustainable
development of the world economy, and in some cases contributes to
organized crime and exposes consumers to dangerous fake products.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997