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US told European Union to hide ACTA from the public
September 2, 2010 | 9:00 am
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By Paul Biba
This pressure by the US to keep the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement secret is unfathomable, especially in an Obama administration which professes more open government. Campaign contributions at work?
From EurActiv:
The United States is behind the wall of secrecy surrounding global trade talks to combat counterfeiting, say EU policy sources, who claim that American officials are refusing to let their European counterparts publish the draft agreement online.
American officials blocked European attempts to publish the latest draft of the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on an EU website after a Washington-based round of negotiations in August.
The European Commission, which has been feeling the heat from lobby groups and the European Parliament for greater transparency in the negotiations, debriefed MEPs on the August negotiations yesterday (1 September).
MEPs have been demanding to see the full negotiating text as they will be asked to give ACTA their consent in a vote later this year.
“If we want to be leaders in the EU on transparency, we really have to put more pressure on our partners to have more transparency,” an Austrian Green MEP told EurActiv.
Swedish MEP and Swedish Pirate Party member Christian Engström did not take part in yesterday’s debrief as he allegedly left a July meeting disgruntled that he could not distribute documents about the trade negotiations to fellow parliamentarians.
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Comments:
I’m kind of surprised no one’s leaked the documents to wikileaks yet, if it really is that much of a contentious issue.
If you look at the support, financial and otherwise, that Hollywood threw behind Obama in the 2008 campaign, his zeal to block publication of ACTA is quite understandable. As Deep Throat put it during Watergate, if you want to understand politics, “Follow the money.”
And I agree, someone really should blast these documents into the public arena, perhaps using the same techniques as for the Climategate emails (a Russia server I believe). Wikileaks isn’t a particularly good idea.Its Afghanistan escapade was so irresponsible, the mainstream media doesn’t want to have anything to do with it.