Joint Statement: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The countries negotiating ACTA have issued a 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’s announcement emphasizes the participants’ 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."