[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: [governance] Internet restrictions present, new trade barrier: WTO session

[Christopher Wilkinson]

Good afternoon:

Could I suggest that the ISOC Geneva staff look into this, and report?
I must say, I had always assumed that the WTO GATS applied to Internet  
services.
(e.g. ccTLDs can't restrict their registrars to national entities.)

Regards,

Christopher Wilkinson.


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri 23 Sep 2011 12:03:40 GMT+02:00
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: [governance] Internet restrictions present,new trade  
> barrier: WTO session
> Reply-To: governance at lists.cpsr.org,Riaz K Tayob  
> <riaz.tayob at gmail.com>
>
> Internet restrictions present
> new trade barrier: WTO session Provided by iPolitics Staff
> Posted on Wed, Sep 21, 2011, 3:55 pm by BJ Siekierski
>
> GENEVA – It’s connected every corner of the world and transformed  
> the way business is done, but individual countries’ restrictions on  
> the Internet have become the biggest new trade barrier, a WTO Public  
> Forum Session argued on Wednesday.
>
> “If you look at the tariff protectionism in the world, if you look  
> at the big trading partners… all of them have a weighted average of  
> around less than five per cent — even the ones who usually get  
> labeled as protectionists,” said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the  
> European Centre for International Political Economy.
>
> Non-tariff trade barriers are hard to compare, said Lee-Makiyama,  
> but if there was a tariff equivalents, many say it would be several  
> hundred per cent.
>
> William Echikson, the head of free expression at Google had a long  
> list of trade barriers.
>
> “Things like installing surveillance tools onto the Internet  
> infrastructure, blocking online services outright — or regularly  
> disrupting them,” Echikson said.
>
> He said that imposing requirements on the online service providers  
> without making these requirements public and issuing orders to  
> online service providers without any legal process are also  
> considered trade barriers.
>
> Local data storage requirements are another aspect that Echikson  
> said is particularly problematic.
>
> Generally speaking, he said, any Internet regulation that favors  
> local companies should be rooted out.
>
> “A local presence requirement, that’s also a very important thing,  
> because with Google we can serve local countries around the world  
> without actually physically being there,” he said.
>
> Moderator Edward Black, president and CEO of the Computer and  
> Communications Industry Association, encouraged the World Trade  
> Organization to address some of these issues.
>
> “Clearly, I think we think the WTO needs to step forward and address  
> Internet-centric issues in order to stay relevant,” Black said.
>
> Black acknowledged there is an agreement (GATS) in place at the WTO  
> to defend against these types of actions, but it remains to be seen  
> how it will be enforced.
>
> “Although the WTO dispute settlement appellate body rulings made  
> clear that GATS does extend to services provided online, it’s  
> unclear how far the GATS article 14 on public morals and security  
> exemptions will extend this space,” Black said. “We need to test  
> those limits and find out what they are.”
>
> For Lee-Makiyama, who said 50 per cent of all cross-border trade  
> would disappear if the Internet ceased to exist, it might be time to  
> go a bit further than that.
>
> “I think there is a serious case for a separate sector agreement,”  
> he said.
>
> © 2011 iPolitics Inc.
>
>
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