Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

What Happened

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multilateral treaty that sets international standards for enforcing intellectual property rights. It was signed in October 2011 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. In 2012 Mexico, the European Union and 22 EU member states added their signatures.

The treaty was designed to come into force only after six countries had ratified it. Japan is the only signatory that has ratified. Because the threshold of six was never reached, ACTA never entered into force.

The decisive blow came in Europe. The signature of the EU and many of its member states triggered widespread protests across the continent. Kader Arif, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the agreement, resigned over it. His replacement, the British MEP David Martin, recommended rejection, arguing that the intended benefits of the agreement were far outweighed by the potential threats to civil liberties. On 4 July 2012 the European Parliament declined its consent by 478 votes to 39, with 165 abstentions, effectively rejecting the treaty. No further ratification action followed.

Background

ACTA was conceived as a response to what industrial groups with interests in copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property described as the growth in global trade in counterfeit goods and pirated copyright-protected works. Its stated aim was an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the internet.

The agreement would have created a new governing body outside existing forums such as the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the United Nations. Organisations including the Motion Picture Association of America and the International Trademark Association are understood to have had significant influence over the ACTA agenda.

The negotiation process drew criticism for being secretive. Non-governmental organisations, developing countries and the general public were excluded from it, and critics including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Entertainment Consumers Association described the process as policy laundering. Organisations representing citizens' and non-governmental interests argued that ACTA could infringe fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and privacy. Doctors Without Borders criticised the agreement for endangering access to medicines in developing countries.

Why It Mattered

ACTA mattered less for what it achieved than for what it exposed. A treaty drafted largely under the influence of rights-holder industries, negotiated outside established institutions, met an unprecedented online and street-level backlash once its text became public. The European Parliament vote of 4 July 2012 was the first time that body had rejected a negotiated international agreement, and it stopped ACTA in its tracks.

The episode set a template for later copyright and trade negotiations: secrecy became a political liability, and civil-liberties arguments about internet regulation moved from the margins to the centre of the debate. For Japan, ACTA is a marker of the Heisei period's turn toward intellectual property as a pillar of trade policy — and a reminder that ratification by a single state is not enough to bring a multilateral treaty to life.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name is 偽造品の取引の防止に関する協定, read ぎぞうひんのとりひきのぼうしにかんするきょうてい (gizōhin no torihiki no bōshi ni kansuru kyōtei).

It breaks down as follows.

• 偽 (ぎ, gi) — false, fake. The first element of 偽造 (ぎぞう, gizō), "counterfeiting, forgery".
• 造 (ぞう, zō) — to make, to manufacture. Together with 偽 it forms 偽造, the act of making something counterfeit.
• 品 (ひん, hin) — goods, article. 偽造品 (ぎぞうひん, gizōhin) is therefore "counterfeit goods".
• の (no) — the possessive/linking particle, here joining "counterfeit goods" to what follows.
• 取 (とり, tori) — to take. The first half of 取引 (とりひき, torihiki), "transaction, trade, dealing".
• 引 (ひき, hiki) — to pull. Paired with 取 it gives 取引, the standard word for a commercial transaction.
• の (no) — the linking particle again.
• 防 (ぼう, bō) — to prevent, to ward off. The first element of 防止 (ぼうし, bōshi), "prevention".
• 止 (し, shi) — to stop. Together with 防 it forms 防止, "prevention".
• に (ni) — particle marking what the prevention relates to.
• 関する (かんする, kansuru) — "concerning, relating to", from 関 (かん, kan), "connection, barrier".
• 協 (きょう, kyō) — to cooperate. The first element of 協定 (きょうてい, kyōtei), "agreement, pact".
• 定 (てい, tei) — to fix, to determine. Together with 協 it forms 協定, the standard term for a formal agreement between parties.

The whole name therefore reads literally as "agreement concerning the prevention of transactions in counterfeit goods" — a precise, bureaucratic construction typical of treaty titles in Japanese. Note that 協定 (kyōtei) is the usual word for a multilateral agreement of this kind, distinct from 条約 (じょうやく, jōyaku), "treaty", and 協約 (きょうやく, kyōyaku), "convention".

Key Figures

• Kader Arif — European Parliament rapporteur on ACTA, who resigned over the agreement.
• David Martin — British MEP who replaced Arif as rapporteur and recommended that the European Parliament reject ACTA, stating that the intended benefits were far outweighed by the potential threats to civil liberties.
• The Motion Picture Association of America and the International Trademark Association — industry bodies understood to have had significant influence over the ACTA agenda.
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Entertainment Consumers Association — critics who described the negotiation process as policy laundering.
• Doctors Without Borders — criticised ACTA for endangering access to medicines in developing countries.
• Japan — the only signatory to have ratified the agreement.