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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Monday 25 January 2016 04:09 PM,
Carolina Rossini wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAK-FJAfHrCyJTy4ppAJocyd-kX2Sof8bwie2RaAxMzy7T3yYdQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Not entering in the more philosophical discussion
now</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAK-FJAfHrCyJTy4ppAJocyd-kX2Sof8bwie2RaAxMzy7T3yYdQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">..(and still saving the right to disagree with
myself later) ...negotiations at the WTO are more transparent
than all of those tons of trade agreement negotiations happening
around the world behind closed door....</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
That is true, but hardly addresses the point that trade governance
forums are not the best place to evolve Internet related policies...
Meanwhile do note that the author commends the TPP and TTIP treaties
and seek to make them " a basis for developing a specific agreement
on digital trade that should be negotiated at the WTO on a
plurilateral basis".<br>
<br>
Also, do see that the authors are not asking for multilateral
negotiations, but even within the WTO just plurilateral ones, so
that the 'default frameworks' are not threatened by something as
dumbly democratic as majoritarianism .<br>
<br>
This is the typical global governance for the powerful today;
develop the basic governance paradigm and frameworks among a
selective group, entrench it through the economic might of the
select group, and then seek all countries to get co-opted through
accession, or taking these frameworks to plurilateral/ multilateral
venues, with the basic frameworks already entrenched and very little
leeway left for new 'participants'. <br>
<br>
I do not think that civil society speaking out against such a
pro-powerful governance model would be considered a philosophical
exercise. One sees a very larger number of global civil society
groups and networks routinely do it.<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAK-FJAfHrCyJTy4ppAJocyd-kX2Sof8bwie2RaAxMzy7T3yYdQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
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<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 5:34 AM,
parminder <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net" target="_blank">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <font face="Verdana">If
we keep pushing away credible global means of discussing
and articulating global Internet policies at
Internet-centric forums where there can be expected a
much better chance to take a social- centric (where
human rights, equality, social justice would certainly
have more prominence) treatment of issues, we would end
up with trade (and security) -centric forums making
global Internet policies for us... Civil society must
therefore take its share of the responsibility for this
unfortunate trend. While the civil society has been
given the multistakeholder teddy bear (or as a colleague
called it, a rattle toy) to keep itself occupied with,
real work goes on elsewhere... <br>
<br>
Thinkers have warned of a situation where instead of our
economy being embedded in the society, we will have a
society embedded in the economy. The very important
social artefact of the Internet - which is kind of the
DNA of new structures of an emerging digital network
society - being primarily governed by trade treaties is
big step towards the latter, undesirable, state. <br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"> <br>
parminder <br>
</font></span></font>
<div>
<div class="h5"><br>
<div>On Monday 25 January 2016 02:47 PM, Carolina
Rossini wrote:<br>
</div>
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target="_blank"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.law360.com/internationaltrade/articles/749648/wto-needs-far-reaching-digital-trade-pact-experts-say">http://www.law360.com/internationaltrade/articles/749648/wto-needs-far-reaching-digital-trade-pact-experts-say</a></a></span></font><br>
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<h1 style="margin:0px 0px
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Needs Far-Reaching Digital Trade Pact,
Experts Say</h1>
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style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent">By <strong
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Law360, New York (January 22, 2016, 3:03 PM
ET) -- Policymakers around the globe should
begin thinking about negotiations for an
expansive World Trade Organization agreement
devoted solely to digital trade, e-commerce
and telecommunications issues, according to
an expert paper circulated at the World
Economic Forum Friday.<br>
<br>
While acknowledging the progress made on
digital trade in recent regional trade
deals, the paper — prepared jointly by the
WEF and the the International Centre for
Trade and Sustainable Development — said the
time has come for an agreement that tackles
those issues head-on at the World Trade
Organization.<br>
<br>
“There is a need to develop greater
consensus or a critical mass around core
concepts regarding cross-border data flows,”
the paper said. “Rules and principles to
support and expand digital trade are being
inserted in some trade agreements. This is a
positive step that should be discussed and
expanded to more jurisdictions.”<br>
<br>
The authors specifically cited the recently
concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership and the
still-underway<strong
style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent"> </strong>Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership as examples
of significant trade deals tackling
e-commerce, which they said should be used
as a springboard for similar work on a
broader platform.<br>
<br>
“This work provides a basis for developing a
specific agreement on digital trade that
should be negotiated at the WTO on a
plurilateral basis — open to those
interested in joining, with consideration
given to applying any such agreement on a
[most-favored-nation] basis to all WTO
members,” the paper said.<br>
<br>
On an overarching policy level, the paper
argued that a new agreement should allow for
the unconstrained flow of data across
borders between willing partners, and that
the only exception should be one that is
narrowly tailored and based on national
security considerations.<br>
<br>
Furthermore, the experts said there ought to
be wide-ranging rules barring countries from
requiring data to be stored only on local
servers as a condition for market entry.
This concept is enshrined within the TPP,
but that agreement has also <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.law360.com/articles/746082/obama-issues-formal-tpp-call-as-gop-clashes-loom"
style="color:rgb(0,66,127);text-decoration:none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:0px;background:transparent"
target="_blank">drawn fire</a> for leaving
the financial services sector on the outside
of those protections.<br>
<br>
Even before launching new WTO talks on
digital trade, the paper recommended
updating certain existing WTO pacts to
better accommodate 21st century traders,
beginning with the Trade Facilitation
Agreement.<br>
<br>
The TFA — which was completed in 2013 and
has been ratified by 68 WTO members — aims
to streamline the flow of goods across
borders around the globe, but could be
modernized by installing a unified de
minimis customs level under which no duties
will applied, according to the experts’
recommendations.<br>
<br>
“For trade in lower value goods that the
Internet is enabling, such costs account for
a relatively larger share of the total
value, making it an even more serious trade
barrier,” the paper said.<br>
<br>
More broadly, the World Economic Forum and
International Centre for Trade and
Sustainable Development experts said that
throughout these processes, there should be
a robust dialogue between governments, the
private sector and advocacy groups that
often pushed back against digital trade
liberalization because of privacy concerns.<br>
<br>
“Ensuring security of the network is one of
the key issues that affects consumer and
business confidence in addition to the
direct costs that security breaches have on
individual businesses,” they said.<br>
<br>
--Editing by Bruce Goldman.</div>
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