Commission wants EU to join international anticounterfeiting pact

The European Commission wants the EU to join up with the US and Japan in an international pact to combat counterfeiting, including the counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products.

It is to ask for a mandate from the EU Member States to negotiate a new Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) with the US, Japan, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand, among others.

"A new international anticounterfeiting treaty will strengthen global co-operation and establish new international norms, helping to create a new global gold standard on IPR enforcement," said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

This new treaty will be aimed at creating international co-operation to harmonise standards and to improve communication between the countries who are signatories, and possibly other countries. It should enable common practices to be established to promote strong intellectual property protection, in co-operation with right holders and trading partners.

It should also contribute to the setting up of a modern legal framework that will reflect the changing nature of counterfeiting in the global economy.

All products are concerned but the Commission is placing an emphasis on medicines. "Most worrying is the booming trade in counterfeit medicines of which more than 2.7 million were intercepted at EU borders in 2006, and which are reckoned to account for almost 10% of world trade in medicines," the Commission says.