<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font face="Times New Roman">Dear Friends,</font><div><font face="Times New Roman"><br></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">I thought I would write to advise you of an important report, just released today by LIRNEasia and ECIPE, that makes clear that <span style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; ">a number of the proposals being put before the </span><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; " id="internal-source-marker_0.5527197055200798">World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT)</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; "> this month in Dubai could result in conflicts for WTO member-states.</span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><br></font><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; ">Entitled “</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; ">Whither
Global Rules for the Internet? The implications of the World Conference
on International Telecommunication (WCIT) for international trade,” </span><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "> it was released publicly today at 1400 Central European Time.</span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><br></font><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; ">This report is the first to look at current proposals for WCIT and </span><span style="font-size: 16px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; ">whether they are congruent with binding rules on trade developed at the World Trade Organisation</span><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; ">. Among the report’s key conclusions:</span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><br></font><ul style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="vertical-align: baseline; "><font face="Times New Roman">Proposals
being made by governments for the World Conference on International
Telecommunications (WCIT) do not adequately take into account their
commitments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS);</font></span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="vertical-align: baseline; "><font face="Times New Roman">WTO
member-countries have made commitments that forbid them from imposing
restrictions on the most common forms of Internet services that would
likely be broken were proposals in front of the upcoming conference to
be agreed to.</font></span></div></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="vertical-align: baseline; "><font face="Times New Roman">All
WTO member-states must abide by a moratorium on tariffs and equivalent
fees on data transmissions that explicitly forbids access fees for data
whether they are discriminatory or not. Some proposals, such as those
promoted by some European telecommunications operators, would likely
conflict with this obligation.</font></span></div></li></ul><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><br></font><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; "><font face="Times New Roman">Matthias and I have found when we meet with the trade community in Geneva that there's little awareness of the trade dimension to</font></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; "> WCIT proposals. Obviously it is in nobody's interest for WCIT to result in ITRs that conflict with WTO obligations. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; "><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; ">The report may be found here: </span><a href="http://www.ecipe.org/media/publication_pdfs/PB201212b.pdf" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; ">http://www.ecipe.org/media/publication_pdfs/PB201212b.pdf</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; ">. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 16px; "><font face="Times New Roman"><br></font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">-- </span></div><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; ">Regards,</span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12px; "> </span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; ">Nick Ashton-Hart</span><br><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Geneva Representative</span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Computer & Communcations Industry Association (CCIA)</span></font><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; ">Tel: +41 (22) 534 99 45</span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; ">Fax: : +41 (22) 594-85-44</span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; ">Mobile: +41 79 595 5468</span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; ">USA Tel: +1 (202) 640-5430</span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 7.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: black; ">email/IM (Jabber/GTalk): </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 7.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 237); "><a href="mailto:nashton@ccianet.org" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">nashton@ccianet.org</a></span></span></span><br><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-size: 7.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: black; ">Skype:</span></span><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-size: 7.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 237); "> nashtonhart</span></span><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; "><a href="http://www.ccianet.org/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://www.ccianet.org</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: bold; ">Need to schedule a meeting or call with me? Feel free to pick a time and date convenient for you at </span><a href="http://meetme.so/nashton" style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; "><font face="Droid Sans" size="1">http://meetme.so/nashton</font></a></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div>
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