Which countries ratified acta

Only three days later, the House of Councillors, after a mere four minutes of discussion, approved the ratification by a to 9 vote, according to Suzawa. But with a censure motion against the Japanese Prime Minister in place on 30 August, the Japanese ACTA opponents felt safe at least for the moment, as normally legislative activities stop due to the fact that the opposition parties supporting the censure motion do not participate in any further pending votes. But on 31 August, a committee of the House of Representatives, and on 6 September, the full House of Representatives pushed ACTA through, each time counting only the votes of the ruling party.

The Pirate Party, which intends to become a registered political group this month, will continue to campaign against ACTA, even now. ACTA will only become a valid international agreement for the ACTA partners after six ratification documents have been deposited with the Japanese government, which is the chosen depository. With an apparent stalemate between the US administration and legislators about ratification procedures and the European Union out after the Parliament voted against the agreement, it looks as if there is still an uphill battle to get to reach that number.

Switzerland has not signed nor ratified. Developments in other countries have not been friendly to ACTA so far, however. Yet another example is the situation in Australia.

Perhaps a quiet approval like in Japan is still possible, otherwise negotiators will just have to re-start as the TPP or CETA negotiators somehow already did. Note however that the ACTA process is a less than democratic to put it mildly , that it serves unilaterally the interests of the entertainment industry, and that it is by and large redundant in view of the TRIPS agreement — with only the major difference that it avoids judicial review.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ACTA is a groundbreaking initiative by key trading partners to strengthen the international legal framework for effectively combating global proliferation of commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy. In addition to calling for strong legal frameworks, the agreement also includes innovative provisions to deepen international cooperation and to promote strong intellectual property rights IPR enforcement practices.

Together, these provisions will help to support American jobs in innovative and creative industries against intellectual property theft. Representatives of the remaining ACTA negotiating parties, the European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland, attended the ceremony and confirmed their continuing strong support for and preparations to sign the Agreement as soon as practicable. The next step in bringing the ACTA into force is the deposit of instruments of ratification, acceptance, or approval from each of the signatories.

The European Parliament is committed to doing everything in the open and actively encourages people to engage in the process, consult its documents or follow the meetings, which are mainly broadcast live on its website. The preparatory work will be done by the parliamentary committees.

The committee on international trade will be in charge and as such will come up with a recommendation for the Parliament to either approve or reject ACTA. However, there will be four other committees which will deliver their opinions on ACTA: the committee on industry, research and energy; the committee on legal affairs; the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs; and the committee on development.

They will spend several months talking to as many stakeholders and interested parties as possible in order to draw on their knowledge and expertise and come to an informed decision.

Many, if not all, of their meetings will be broadcast live on the Parliament's website. Once the recommendation to MEPs is available, it will be made publicly accessible.

The Parliament will then vote on ACTA during a plenary session, which people will be able to follow live on the website. So far there have been three resolutions to call on the Commission to make ACTA documents public and increase the Parliament's role in negotiating the content:. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands would still have to sign the agreement and all member states would still have to ratify it before it can enter into force in the EU.

No agreement would be possible without the consent of the Parliament. However, if six countries outside the EU still ratify it then the agreement will enter into force there.

How will I be able to find out the latest developments on this in the European Parliament? Live broadcast of meetings will be announced and there will be links to documents that have been released. There will also be regular announcements through the Parliament's Facebook page and Twitter accounts in 22 different languages. Launch the search. What you should know about ACTA. Share this page:.