Brussels, 05/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - The EU has yet to sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Commissioner Karel De Gucht, however, is awaiting the go-ahead from the Council before the end of this year. ACTA will then have to be approved by the European Parliament and ratified by all member states before it becomes effective.
Unlike Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States, all of which signed the ACTA at an official ceremony in Tokyo on 1 October, the EU, Mexico and Switzerland have still not signed the multiannual trade agreement. Negotiated in camera outside the aegis of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) between 2007 and 2010, the ACTA seeks to protect intellectual property against what may be described as traditional counterfeiting (clothing, medicines, etc.) and digital counterfeiting (illegal downloading), by setting harmonised international standards.
Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht hopes to be given the formal go-ahead from by the Council before the end of the year. Indeed, this approval could come at a meeting of European trade ministers, who will gather in Brussels on 14 December ahead of the next WTO ministerial conference (Geneva, 15-17 December). However, even if the EU were to sign the agreement before the end of 2011, it would still not come into force, since it is required to be passed by the European Parliament, which will not put the issue to the vote until spring of next year. Then, each and every member state will have to ratify the agreement which contains provisions that are outside the Commission's area of responsibility, such as those on the enforcement of criminal charges.
Switzerland, which has begun a public consultation on the agreement, is unlikely to sign before next year. In Mexico, the Senate voted unanimously at the start of September against its government's signing the agreement. The ACTA will come into effect only when six of the signatories have certified that they have taken all the steps necessary to implement it. (EH/transl.rt)