ACTA Negotiators 'Meeting' With Consumer Advocates Involved 'Negotiators Eating With Negotiators'

Politics

from the well-that-was-useful dept

We already discussed how ACTA negotiators last week announced the timing of a “meeting” lunch for negotiators with consumer rights groups in such a way that it was impossible for most of those groups to attend, and then the negotiators refused to reschedule to a more convenient time. Of course, some people were able to make it, and their reports suggest that ACTA negotiators never really intended to talk to consumer rights groups in the first place:

The meeting was an informal lunch with negotiators scattered at tables rather than structured in a means for dialogue. This is similar to the D.C. “mixer” and in contrast to Lucerne. In Lucerne the delegates requested written questions in advance and answered them in a structured dialogue around a conference table. Everything was on the record, which led to many news stories based on meeting notes released from those present. In DC and now Tokyo the engagement was more informal with no opportunities for formal question and answers of the group.

Representatives of Oxfam, Creative Commons and perhaps one or two other groups were reported to be at the meeting. According to one attendee who arrived late, there were very few open seats where NGOs could sit with negotiators. Mostly the tables appeared to be of negotiators eating with other negotiators.

Transparency in action.

Filed Under: acta, consumer rights