[x-pubpol] Rewind: Mexico Surprises Everyone, Signs ACTA

[Joly MacFie]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120712/01204619669/rewind-mexico-surprises-everyone-signs-acta.shtml


Just yesterday we pointed out that reports coming out of Mexico suggested
that ACTA was dead there and had no chance of being signed and ratified.
And then, just hours later, the news comes out that Mexico's ambassador to
Japan signed on to ACTA without anyone knowing about it. Bizarrely, that
particular news report claims that in signing this agreement, Mexico joins
with others, including the European Union. Yet, of course, as anyone who's
been paying attention knows, the EU loudly rejected ACTA just last week.

Also, I'm a bit confused. One of the reasons that Mexico did not sign way
back in October when many others signed, was that the legislature had also
rejected ACTA, and reports had said that the executive branch had to get
the Mexican Senate to ratify the agreement. So, to have a representative
just suddenly up and sign ACTA seems... very, very strange. If they could
just do that, why didn't they do it back in October with most other
signatories?

To be honest, I'm now curious if this sudden surprise signature has
anything to do with the US inviting Mexico to join in the TPP negotiations.
It may be cynical, but Mexico has wanted in to TPP negotiations for a while
and had been kept out. It seems entirely possible that a "deal" was struck,
whereby Mexico would sign ACTA in exchange for getting in on TPP.

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