Joint initiative, a bold leadership effort among countries that support high standards of enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting, will address three main areas: cooperation, best practices, and a strong legal framework for IPR enforcement.

We are all familiar with the problem: Counterfeiting and piracy threaten U.S. jobs and economic growth, striking at the reputation of U.S. brands and stealing the products of U.S. creativity and innovation.  Industry loss estimates run into hundreds of billions of dollars.  It poses a similar threat to U.S. trading partners around the world.  Developing countries are among the biggest victims, as counterfeiters passing off shoddy and unsafe goods undermine emerging local economies.

But while there are various trade policy tools that address intellectual property rights (IPR) piracy, none have provided a high-level international framework that strengthens the global enforcement of IPR and helps in the fight to protect consumers from the health and safety risks associated with many counterfeit products. Now there is…

In a major step in the fight against intellectual property rights counterfeiting and piracy, U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab recently announced the United States and some of its key trading partners will seek to negotiate an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

“Global counterfeiting and piracy steal billions of dollars from workers, artists and entrepreneurs each year and jeopardize the health and safety of citizens across the world,” said Ambassador Schwab.  “The United States looks forward to partnering with many of our key trading partners to combat this global problem.”

In a press conference on Capitol Hill with members of Congress and ambassadors from countries who will be part of the new initiative, Schwab explained that the participants in this effort – which so far include Canada, the European Union (with its 27 Member States), Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland – will work towards a vision, developed over the past year, for a new agreement addressing three main areas: cooperation, best practices, and a strong legal framework for IPR enforcement.

The ACTA will not involve any changes to the TRIPS Agreement. Rather, it will complement a wide range of other trade policy tools that USTR and other agencies use as part of our long-standing and enduring efforts to help protect U.S. intellectual property overseas, working in cooperation with our foreign trading partners and with U.S. rights holders. These tools include U.S. free trade agreements, negotiation of Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs), WTO accession negotiations, bilateral discussions of IP issues, the Special 301 process, U.S. preference programs, and dispute settlement.

The goal is to set a new, higher benchmark for enforcement that countries can join on a voluntary basis.  The negotiations represent a cooperative effort by the governments involved, and will not be conducted as part of any international organization.

The ACTA will also complement on-going work to address IPR piracy.  The STOP! initiative, announced in October 2004, is a comprehensive initiative to fight global piracy by systematically dismantling piracy networks, blocking counterfeits at our borders, helping American businesses secure and enforce their rights around the world, and collaborating with our trading partners to ensure the fight against fakes is global.  A key goal of STOP! is to aggressively engage U.S. trading partners to join our efforts against counterfeiting and piracy.

Schwab said the United States and its ACTA partners will work closely to complete the new agreement as quickly as possible.  She added that she expects other trading partners to join in the emerging consensus for stronger IPR enforcement and stressed that all countries, including developing countries, have a major stake in fighting counterfeiting and piracy.

A slew of commendations greeted the launching of this latest effort. Caroline Joiner, executive director of the Chamber's Global Intellectual Property (IP) Center, said, "Today's announcement proves that the U.S. government, U.S. industry, and foreign governments will no longer accept intellectual property theft as just another cost of doing business…We urge additional countries to join these efforts until every key trading partner is committed to this important fight."

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez commented, “Intellectual property is a cornerstone of economic growth and competitiveness… the promotion and protection of IP a top priority and ACTA expands our commitment and links us with a number of our key trading partners…I want to congratulate Ambassador Schwab and our partnering nations as they address the growing problem of counterfeit and fake goods.”

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson stated, "Europe has always been at the forefront of global attempts to protect intellectual property rights and fight counterfeiting. A new international anti-counterfeiting treaty will strengthen global cooperation and establish new international norms, helping to create a new global gold standard on IPR enforcement."

The Honourable David Emerson, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, said, “This government is working both at home and internationally to protect the intellectual property rights of Canadian artists, creators, inventors and investors. We are seeking to counter global piracy and counterfeiting more effectively, in an effort to foster an environment that allows for innovation, foreign investment and sustained economic growth.”

In Japan, METI Minister Akira Amari praised the new efforts, saying, I firmly believe that establishing ACTA will send a strong message for stopping the international proliferation of counterfeit and pirated goods, and that ACTA will serve as a high-level standard which countries throughout the world will define as its goal.”