A treaty to reconsider

Żminijietna – Voice of the Left is opposed to the government signing the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta). This treaty is being opposed in the European Parliament by the European Greens, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the United Left bloc.

The government of Malta and other European governments approved this treaty before the European Parliament took a stand on this issue. We condemn this as irresponsible, arrogant and anti-democratic behaviour. We also suspect that the Maltese government, like other European governments, was pressurised diplomatically by the United States to support this treaty. The US and Japan are the ones behind this treaty, put forward in 2006.

The poorer countries will be the mostly affected because access to cheaper medicines will end once this treaty is put in practice. The medicines available will be only those manufactured by multinational companies. Countries that produce low-cost generic medicines for the market, such as India and Brazil, will not be allowed to do so. This will result in high mortality rates in the poorer countries, where health care will deteriorate dramatically.

The treaty also poses a threat for civil liberties, because it will create a “non-elected” international organisation that will be conferred with powers to monitor and proceed against those persons who in their judgement are deemed to have violated the intellectual copyright law.

This will lead to the demand that the suspects will be extradited and processed in a foreign country, with the consequence that the legal process may not be fair.

Żminijietna joins up with the Malta Anti Acta Group (MAAG), Alternattiva Demokratika and the Labour Party and its MEPs who all took a stand against this treaty.

We encourage other organisations to take a position on this particular issue. We also note that thousands of people are protesting in the streets of the European capitals against this treaty.