Here is an agreement regulating trade in bananas. It contains tariffs, quotas, tonnage. Now let's look at the EU-Korea "trade agreement". I does not look like a trade agreement. It looks more like a (harmonising) EU-directive. No, it looks exactly like a directive. The language is identical! Where it says "Each Party" in the agreement, the corresponding EU-directive article says "Member states". It has been said this agreement is a template for Acta, that Acta will look very similar (and other agreements too).
Acta is not a trade agreement. Trade agreements concern bananas or trucks or shoes. Acta contains criminal sanctions already considered in ongoing legislative processes. Not even TRIPs is a trade agreement. The acronym reads Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. TRIPs is integreated with the UN system at WIPO, but Acta is (like the final Copenhagen Accord) made up by a self selected few in a self proclaimed closed process.
The Swedish Minister for Trade responsible for Acta says there is "hopefully a conclusion of the negotiations in 2010". At the same time the Minister for Communications demands transparency from other Acta parties.
I say that if Acta is not opened up for parliamentary scrutiny before the Council reaches a political agreement, the Swedish parliament is effectively bypassed and its members cannot call themselves legislators any more.
Ett mejl till Näringsutskottet idag
God fortsättning på det nya året!
Har varit bortrest några dgr, varför jag inte hängt med. Har hur som helst sänt ett mejl till Näringsutskottets ledamöter och suppleanter. Det var 15 + 29 pers med en del tunga makthavare bland ersättarna ;-) Har ställt frågan hur de tänker. Refererade till intervjun med Karin Pihlsäter i Aktuellt den 30 december där hon uttrycker att de måste få in den digitala världen i den reala världen. Ett uttryck som tiltar i mitt huvud - Vad menar människan? Om inte annat är det en påminnelse om att jag och andra håller i.
//farmorgun
Press på regeringen från Näringsutskottet ang Acta
Borde inte det där Utskottsinitiativet i Näringsutskottet, som är tänkt att sätta press på regeringen, vara länkat här? Fattar inte riktigt strategin, du står ju som första namn bland undertecknarna. Eller kommer det en bloggpostning om det?
http://etherpad.com/public-acta
Digged !!
Hello !
I Digged this at: http://digg.com/political_opinion/Acta_is_not_a_trade_agreement_Erik_Josefsson
My Digg history: http://digg.com/users/sunurb01/history
Regards, Urban
WIPO vs WTO
Was TRIPs really concluded at WIPO, I thought it was a WTO thing...?
Also, interesting to see the least public Swedish minister having such a responsibility over something that is not related to her area of expertise (trade).Asking why this never-heard-of-minister not being the right minister for the subject could be something interesting to a journalist to dig deeper into... I mean, she is almost as available as the actual ACTA documents themselves... almost! ;)
You are right, I chaged it to
You are right, I changed it to "TRIPs is integreated with the UN system at WIPO". Thanks for debugging! :-)
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