International Trade: USTR Releases Statement of ACTA Negotiating Partners on Recent ACTA Negotiations

On October 1, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a statement of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiating partners about the recent round of ACTA negotiations in Tokyo. The statement noted, in part, that "[p]articipants in the negotiations constructively resolved nearly all substantive issues and produced a consolidated and largely finalized text of the proposed agreement, which will be submitted ad referendum to their respective authorities. The participants agreed to work expeditiously to resolve the small number of outstanding issues that require further examination in capitals, with a view to finalizing the text of the agreement as promptly as possible." The statement also reported that the participants would "publicly release the text of the agreement shortly."