EU Inks Anti-Counterfeiting Pact

In an official ceremony held in Tokyo last week, representatives from the European Union and 22 of its member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), joining the eight other countries - including the US - that had signed the intellectual property trade pact late last year.

The agreement aims to strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) against rights infringement; some of these new standards go beyond the minimum requirements in the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

The EU follows Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States in signing onto the pact.

Of the negotiating parties, Switzerland and Mexico have yet to sign the agreement. In the case of the latter, it is still unclear whether Mexico City will do so, given that the Mexican Congress approved a resolution last year asking President Felipe Calderón not to sign the pact.

Countries have until 1 May 2013 to sign the pact. ACTA will become legally binding only after Japan - the depositary of the agreement - receives six ratification instruments from the negotiating parties.

Since the start of formal negotiations in 2008, several civil society groups have raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the ACTA negotiation process and regarding the possible effects of the pact’s “TRIPS-plus” provisions on access to medicines and on the exercise of fundamental freedoms in the digital environment.