No trade-off for ACTA transparency, says Geist

The office of the US Trade Representative has released a statement that, on the surface, supports greater transparency in Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. But according to Canadian law professor and ACTA critic Michael Geist, the move is being offered as a trade-off for concessions by other countries.

"Increasing transparency in the ACTA negotiations, including providing improved means for public input into the process, is a priority for the United States," writes USTR spokeswoman Nefeterius McPherson.

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"In this round of ACTA negotiations, the US 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," she says

"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."

The brackets McPherson refers to are indications in the draft that a point has not been agreed on; several bracketed versions of a clause are typically included in a text under negotiation, representing the contending points of view of the negotiating countries.

Geist respondedon his website, saying talk of "resolving the scope of IP rights" can be read as a reference particularly to the position of the European Union, which is seeking a broader scope that includes patents alongside copyright and trademarks.

"There is no reason to link ACTA transparency with the substance of the treaty," he said.

"The text of the treaty can be released without regard for the level of agreement on substantive issues. Yet unlike most other ACTA countries that have called for transparency without condition, the US has set conditions that effectively seeks to trade its willingness to release the text for gains on the substance of the text."

Geist is in Wellington for the latest round of ACTA negotiations. He took part in the PublicACTA conference last Saturday, that drafted a statement calling among other matters for greater transparency.

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