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U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog
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September 15, 2008
Over 100 groups urge counterfeiting treaty negotiations be made public
From today's joint news release Secret Counterfeiting Treaty Must be Made Public, Global Organizations Say : More than 100 public interest organizations (including U.S. PIRG) from around the world today called on officials (go to release and letter website or letter only (pdf)) from the countries negotiating Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) -- the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand -- to publish immediately the draft text of the agreement. Of course, we are concerned that while the treaty negotiations are secret from the public, that the powerful special interests that would benefit are in the smoke-filled backrooms helping to draft the proposal. More from our release:
[...] Worsening the problem is the perception that industry lobbyists have access to the text and are influencing the negotiations. "The lack of transparency in negotiations of an agreement that will affect the fundamental rights of citizens of the world is fundamentally undemocratic. It is made worse by the public perception that lobbyists from the music, film, software, video games, luxury goods and pharmaceutical industries have had ready access to the ACTA text and pre-text discussion documents through long-standing communication channels.
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at September 15, 2008 02:53 PM
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