Washington, D.C. – Today the Office of the United States Trade Representative released a statement regarding the next round of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations that will begin Monday, April 12 in Wellington, New Zealand:
“Increasing transparency in the ACTA negotiations, including providing improved means for public input into the process, is a priority for the United States,” said USTR spokeswoman Nefeterius McPherson. “In this upcoming round of ACTA negotiations, the U.S. delegation will be working with other delegations to resolve some fundamental issues, such as the scope of the intellectual property rights that are the focus of this agreement. Progress is necessary so that we can prepare to release a text that will provide meaningful information to the public and be a basis for productive dialogue. We hope that enough progress is made in New Zealand in clearing brackets from the text so that participants can be in a position to reach a consensus on sharing a meaningful text with the public.”
