Report: USA behind lack of transparency in ACTA meetings

Is the United States government behind the gag order that doesn't allow European Commissioner members to talk about those super secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) meetings? According to a report on Euractiv, that's what many European politicians are saying.

According to that report, US officials have blocked European attempts to publish the latest draft of the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on the EU website after a round of negotiations in August. Those negotiations took place in Washington D.C.

The European Commission, which has been feeling the heat from lobby groups, the public, and the European Parliament over greater transparency in the negotiations, debriefed MEPs on the August negotiations Sept. 1. MEPs want to see the full transcript of the meetings because they will be asked to give ACTA their consent in a vote later this year.

Swedish MEP and Swedish Pirate Party member Christian Engström did attend yesterday's debriefing; still bothered by a July meeting where he was told that he could not distribute documents about the trade negotiations to fellow parliamentarians.

"If we want to be leaders in the EU on transparency, we really have to put more pressure on our partners to have more transparency," an Austrian Green MEP told EurActiv.

The United States believes differences about ACTA "are resolvable," according to Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative's office.

The next ACTA round is already set for September in Japan.