The Dangers of Limited Member Treaties: The ACTA Case

Abstract

In the context of the initiative for Upgrading the Single Market, the Commission has put forward a re-evaluated approach to trade – Trade for All. The EU prioritises a return to global trade negotiations and puts forward a three-prong strategy for re-invigorating the World Trade Organisation’s role in trade negotiations. The first two prongs – the WTO to play a central role and single issue focused negotiations – are fairly straight-forward. However the third prong – letting subsets of nations advance particular agendas, with others to follow later – raises some concerns. While the Trade Facilitation Agreement appears to be a successful example of this, the ill-fated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is another story. The European Commission was a strong advocate of this proposed treaty, but it was roundly rejected by the European Parliament. This paper reviews the experience of the ACTA negotiations to identify important lessons if the EU is to pursue limited membership treaties with greater success.