Trade Ministers of the eleven countries negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership held a side meeting at the APEC summit in Indonesia last week. They issued a statement in which they agreed to keep working on outstanding issues (including IP), and indicated that Japan is closer to joining the negotiations. The statement specifically says that “each TPP member has concluded bilateral consultations with Japan regarding Japan’s interest in joining the TPP. Today, Ministers agreed by consensus to finalize with Japan the process for entry in a manner that allows the negotiations to continue expeditiously toward conclusion – as was done with other members that joined the negotiations in progress. Japan can then join the TPP negotiations upon completion of current members’ respective domestic processes.”
The USTR’s recent National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Barriers describes its view of IP protection in Japan. It notes that IP protection in Japan is generally strong, and lauds Japan’s signing and ratification of ACTA. However, USTR wants Japan to give police and prosecuters ex offico authority to act on their own initiative; wants “improvement” of Japan’s ISP liability laws; wants stronger civil and criminal remedies against unauthorized circumventions of TPMs; the term of copyright protection expanded to 70 years for all types of works; and wants Japan to “expand” its “limitation on the private use exception” regarding materials “knowingly obtained from an infringing source.” An earlier infojustice blog notes that the US TPP proposals would require Japan to implement some of these requests desired by USTR.
Also last week, the Peruvian Ministry of Commerce opened press and stakeholder registration for the 17th round of TPP negotiations. They round will be held May 15-24 in Lima at the JW Marriot. There will be a stakeholder forum and briefing on the 19th, and a reception on the 20th. Further details are available in the official information guide.
