Intellectual Property Watch, May 6, 2011
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It is instructive to watch the difference between what government policymakers say and what they do. The Doha Development Round was launched in 2001 with the promise of trade liberalization for the promotion of development. The DDR is in its extended death throes. Yet, during the timeframe of the DDR, a group of G8-plus countries has managed to negotiate the virtual antithesis of trade liberalization in the form of the plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).The ACTA is designed to establish a set of nontransparent trade barriers, all the more remarkable having come out of largely liberal democratic governments.