Is CETA introducing ACTA through the back door?
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [Kommt ACTA mit CETA durch die Hintertür? | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.14_Kommt_ACTA_mit_CETA_durch_die_Hintertuer?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120718]
The European Parliament rejected ACTA with a large majority on 4 July
2012, but just one week later the EU is accused of pushing back the
rejected agreement through the back door, that is, through CETA, the
EU–Canada trade agreement that includes measures similar to ACTA.
The negotiations between EU and Canada on the bilateral trade agreement
CETA started in November 2009 and will probably be ended by the end of
this year. Just like ACTA, the trade deal has been drafted in secret but
leaked documents, dated February 2012, have shown parts of ACTA being
introduced in this new agreement. CETA will also require the approval of
the European Parliament to enter into force.
“CETA must be cancelled altogether (or its repressive ACTA parts must be
scrapped), or face the same fate as ACTA in the Parliament”, stated La
Quadrature du Net.
MEP Nigel Farage drew the attention over the similarities between ACTA
and CETA: “If the commission has a glimmer of respect for the voice of
the people it would change CETA as soon as possible and stop trying to
bring ACTA into legislative life by stealth. ACTA is like a Frankenstein
which has been bolted together and keeps on moving. It is dangerous and
must be brought to an end immediately,” said Farage.
Internet activists have already warned over the possibility that ACTA
may appear in several draft agreements in order to get through somehow.
“To put back the same provisions in a much larger trade agreement will
make it more difficult to reject. If CETA is successful, then one would
think that the European commission would come back and say ‘well, you
just passed that, so you cannot object to ACTA’,” said Michael Geist,
law professor at the University of Ottawa, who uncovered the leaked
documents showing that the proposals from ACTA had been included in CETA.
The chapter on intellectual property rights is almost identical to ACTA
in several instances, including rules on enforcement of intellectual
property rights, damages, injunctions, border enforcement, preserving
evidence and criminal sanctions, while Article 23 defines all commercial
scale copyright infringement as criminal.
The Trade Commissioner’s spokesman, John Clancy tried to explain on
Twitter that the leaked documents were actually a previous version of
the agreement drafted before ACTA was rejected by MEPs, and that the
agreement draft has since been changed and “no single provision departs
from EU law.”
Joe McNamee from EDRi warned the Commission against using CETA to get
parts of ACTA back into place, considering that such attempts would be
“hamfisted, politically incompetent and anti-democratic.”
ACTA Lives: How the EU & Canada Are Using CETA as Backdoor Mechanism To
Revive ACTA (9.07.2012)
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6580/135/
ACTA is back, completed with investment protections (10.07.2012)
http://acta.ffii.org/?p=1622
EC Says ACTA ISP Provisions Dropped from CETA, Yet Most of ACTA Likely
Remains Intact (11.07.2012)
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6584/125/
EU accused of trying to introduce ACTA ‘through the back door’ (11.07.2012)
http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/eu-accused-of-trying-to-introduce-acta-through-the-back-door/
Commission set for fresh collision course over ACTA copy-cat clauses
(12.07.2012)
http://euobserver.com/19/116944
EDRi-member Digitale Gesellschaft – Flyer on CETA (only in German,
17.07.2012)