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<div style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: 10pt; color: black; "><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid blue; padding-left: 3px;">As an aside I'm wondering if we as a group might not want to try to avoid specialized jargon and acronyms. I know that I'm guilty of this as well from time to time but we need to recognize that we are a multi-lingual, multi-cultural group with a lot of people whose first language isn't Tech, International Relations, International Trade and that's apart from those who aren't able to communicate here in their other first languages :)</blockquote></div>
<font class="Apple-style-span" size="2">+ 1 with feeling!<br>
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<div style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: 10pt; color: black; ">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: michael gurstein <gurstein@gmail.com><br>
To: 'William Drake' <william.drake@uzh.ch>; governance <governance@lists.igcaucus.org><br>
Sent: Wed, Jan 23, 2013 5:34 pm<br>
Subject: RE: [governance] France Proposes an Internet Tax<br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:">Thanks Bill, also very informative…</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:">As an aside I'm wondering if we as a group might not want to try to avoid specialized jargon and acronyms. I know that I'm guilty of this as well from time to time but we need to recognize that we are a multi-lingual, multi-cultural group with a lot of people whose first language isn't Tech, International Relations, International Trade and that's apart from those who aren't able to communicate here in their other first languages :)</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"> William Drake [<a href="mailto:william.drake@uzh.ch?">mailto:william.drake@uzh.ch</a>] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 23, 2013 5:30 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a>; michael gurstein<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [governance] France Proposes an Internet Tax</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Hi Mike</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">The GATS has 15 General Obligations and Disciplines (GODs). Absent waivers or other limitations, the key GODs of MFN and national treatment apply to their scheduled services, and the EC schedule is quite liberalizing and covers information services, which presumably includes the targeted "over the top" services. If instead you wanted to argue for a narrowly content-based categorization, I've not looked at it in a decade but the EC schedule is probably more restrictive regarding advertising services; however, in this it's probably typical in not being reflective of contemporary web-based transactions like what Google, FB etc. are up to (could look on the WTO site). And of course, one could debate whether that simple category would suffice here. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">In any event, despite all the intensive debate and rule making of the 1990s, com ministries don't generally appear to be all that attentive to the GATS, at least until the national trade ministries call and tell them there's a complaint etc. I've not detected much attention to it in the ITU in some time, and certainly did not hear anyone talk about it or suggest it mattered to what they were proposing in Dubai.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Bill</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">On Jan 22, 2013, at 9:35 PM, michael gurstein <<a href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com">gurstein@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:">Bill I'm very curious as to the specifics of your assertion below.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:">Could you provide?</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:">Tks,</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:">From:</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"> </span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"><a href="mailto:governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org"><span style="color:purple">governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>[<a href="mailto:governance-?">mailto:governance-</a><a href="mailto:request@lists.igcaucus.org"><span style="color:purple">request@lists.igcaucus.org</span></a>]<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>On Behalf Of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></b>William Drake<br>
<b>Sent:</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Tuesday, January 22, 2013 12:23 PM<br>
<b>To:</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org"><span style="color:purple">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</span></a>; Nick Ashton-Hart<br>
<b>Subject:</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Re: [governance] France Proposes an Internet Tax</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">On Jan 22, 2013, at 9:18 PM, Nick Ashton-Hart <<a href="mailto:nashton@ccianet.org"><span style="color:purple">nashton@ccianet.org</span></a>> wrote:</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:">It would not be possible for a measure to target foreign companies only - that would breach France's WTO obligations (and that of many other countries were they to try to do the same thing).</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">A small problem that seemed to receive zero discussion among the proponents in Dubai</div>
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