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USTR releases new White Paper on Access to Medicine: includes almost no specifics in terms of negotiating positions
Submitted by James Love on 12. September 2011 - 11:34USTR has released its new White Paper on Access to Medicine. Here is the press release. A copy of the White Paper is available here:
USTR New Exclusive Right for Copyright Holders: Importation Provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)
Submitted by alberto.cerda on 5. July 2011 - 22:00At the recently completed Vietnam round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), once again, no official text of negotiation was released. Therefore, we still need to speculate about its status, relying in part on a three-month-ago leaked version of the intellectual property chapter proposed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
White House and European Commission trade official oppose waiver of drug patents for Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
Submitted by James Love on 11. June 2011 - 9:36KEI Policy Brief 2011:1
June 11, 2011, Revised August 15, 2011
Senator Wyden releases redacted version of October 29, 2010 CRS report on ACTA
Submitted by James Love on 26. April 2011 - 17:16On April 26, 2011, Senator Wyden released a redacted version of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on ACTA that has been the subject to an ongoing Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) dispute with USTR.
(More context here, here and here).
This is a link to the report that USTR claimed they could not release because of restrictions on its use by Senator Wyden.
http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/RedactedACTACRSMemotoSenWyden.pdf
ACTA: USTR's talking points to WTO Council for TRIPS
Submitted by thiru on 4. November 2010 - 6:17The following statement is the oral intervention made by USTR at the WTO Council for TRIPS (October 2010) regarding ACTA.
Talking Points of the United States for TRIPS Council Meeting of October 26, 2010
Agenda Item P
ACTAWe would like to thank other delegations for their interest in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
Delegations will recall that the United States and other delegations have been interested in discussing the issue of IP enforcement at this Council for many years and so we’re pleased to have another discussion today.
USTR's implausible claim that ACTA Article 1.2 is an all purpose loophole, and the ramifications if true
Submitted by James Love on 22. October 2010 - 14:23The October 2010 version of the ACTA text is inconsistent with several areas of U.S. law, and proposals for new laws in the areas of the reform of patent damages and access to orphaned copyrighted works. In particular, the obligations in the ACTA text do not incorporate many of the areas of limitations and exceptions to remedies found in U.S. law, and in the statutes of some other countries.
ACTA's Washington DC conclave: Is this Round 10?
Submitted by Malini Aisola on 11. August 2010 - 15:56According to an informed source, USTR intimated that next week's ACTA meeting in Washington DC will be attended by all the negotiating parties and that discussions would include all issues under consideration in ACTA. We are still awaiting a response from USTR regarding the attendees, scope and purpose of the meeting but this new information seems to be indicative of nothing short of the next ACTA round.
Earlier, US government officials had informed that the an intersessional meeting would be held the week of 16 August in Washington DC.
USTR responds to Senator Wyden's letter on ACTA
Submitted by Malini Aisola on 2. March 2010 - 17:01Ambassador Ron Kirk has issued a response to Senator Wyden's letter dated January 6, 2010. The official press release from Senator Wyden's office follows:
U.S. Senator Ron WydenFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jennifer Hoelzer (Wyden): (202) 224-3789
March 2, 2010Wyden Gets Some Answers on ACTA Negotiations
USTR Responds on Range of Issues, including Internet Access and Drug Sales
Rethinking compulsory licensing for export: WTO members hold informal consultations on Paragraph 6 implementation
Submitted by thiru on 12. February 2010 - 5:59Friday, 12 February 2010
Around 100 Members of the World Trade Organization attended informal consultations today in Room E (a mainstay of the green room consultations) to discuss the implementation of Paragraph 6 mechanism which was created to be an "an expeditious solution" for "WTO members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector" that faced difficulties in in "making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement".
Calendar for USTR head Ambassador Ron Kirk, for May to September 2009
Submitted by James Love on 11. November 2009 - 9:21On September 11, 2009, KEI submitted a FOIA request for the daily calendar of USTR head Ambassador Ron Kirk. On Friday afternoon, November 6, 2009, we received a response to that FOIA. This complements our earlier FOIA which covered his calendar from March 20 to May 1, 2009.
