WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) today 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 summary is being shared with stakeholders for review and comment.
"I am grateful to our partners in the ACTA negotiations for working with us in a joint effort to prepare this summary," said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. "We look forward to taking more steps to engage with the public in our efforts to make trade work for American families."
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. 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 American families to dangerous fake products.
BACKGROUND
Negotiations on the ACTA began in June 2008. In preparation for those negotiations and since then USTR has reached out to the public for its views and to exchange information on several occasions. The release today of a summary of the ACTA is the most comprehensive joint effort to date of all of the participants in the negotiation to provide information on the ACTA to the public. The summary can be found on the USTR website at www.ustr.gov. Members of the public with questions about the summary or the status of the negotiations should contact Kira Alvarez, Chief Negotiator and Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Intellectual Property Enforcement at (202) 395-4510.
