Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

On April 6, 2009, USTR released a detailed summary of the current state of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The summary, which all of the ACTA negotiating partners drafted, sets out the specific topics under discussion in the negotiations, and reflects the Obama Administration's commitment to transparency.

The objective of the ACTA negotiations is to negotiate a new, state-of-the art agreement to combat counterfeiting and piracy.  The United States has been working with several trading partners, including Australia, Canada, the European Union and its 27 member states, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland, to negotiate the agreement.

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 American families to dangerous fake products. Members of the public who are interested in understanding the U.S. approach to possible legal framework provisions of the ACTA should review the "ENFORCEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS" Article of the intellectual property rights chapters of recent U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). For example:

• Australia FTA Article of the intellectual property rights chapter

• Korea FTA Article of the intellectual property rights chapter

• Morocco FTA Article of the intellectual property rights chapter

• Singapore FTA Article of the intellectual property rights chapter

The 5th round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was held in Rabat on July 16th and 17th, 2009, hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco. During this meeting, the discussions focused on International Cooperation, Enforcement Practices and Institutional Issues. Participants also continued discussions on transparency matters, including providing information to stakeholders and the interested public. You can read the agenda for the round here.

The draft agenda for the next round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations can be found here.