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Inside U.S. Trade
December 17

Parties to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may sign the text of the final agreement in late May on the sidelines of the ministerial for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, according to informed sources.

ACTA parties are considering the OECD ministerial as a possible venue because it brings together high-ranking officials from most of the ACTA parties. But one source said that the OECD forum is only one option for a signing venue, and nothing has yet been finalized.

By the time of the ministerial, it is likely that Greece and Italy will have backed away from their threats of blocking the the ACTA in the council, which will allow member states governments to approve the agreement.

A Greek official said there is too much pressure from other EU member states in favor of the agreement for Greece to ignore when considering a vote at the European Council and risk being singled out as a country that prevented the EU from being able to sign the ACTA.

Italy and Greece are ultimately unlikely to block the agreement at the Council, although they could refuse to ratify ACTA on the national level, he suggested. …

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