The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) “represents a case of ‘counterfeit global policy-making’. This is because: (1) Its justifications, considering the existence of TRIPS, are dubious if not fraudulent; (2) it seeks confrontation, particularly with developing countries as opposed to cooperation and ignores the efforts by the latter group of countries to implement TRIPS in resource-poor settings; (3) it circumvents legitimate multilateral forums such as WTO and WIPO to avoid global accountability adopting the discredited “you are with us or against us” attitude; and (4) it is burdened with a huge democratic deficit in the countries where the idea has originated.” (more…)  Read the rest of this entry »