[bestbits] Fwd: WTO Needs Far-Reaching Digital Trade Pact, Experts Say

Mon Jan 25 06:14:10 EST 2016

Exactly! As one US lobbyists described this process as ‘creating alternative “play-by-the-rules” clubs of like-minded countries’.

TISA (Trade in Services Agreement) is a very good example of this. It currently being negotiated between 20+ parties (counting the EU as one), who call themselves, ironically, the Really Good Friends of Services. The TISA talks began formally in March 2013.

The negotiators  aim is to extend the scope and rules of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) at the WTO. Attempts to achieve that goal through the Doha round have been stalled for some years. The TISA is intended as a ‘gold standard’ agreement that other countries can accede to, set new standards that will inform other agreements, and eventually be incorporated back into the GATS to apply to the whole WTO membership.

The US and its industry are dominant players in TISA negotiations.

From: bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net [mailto:bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] On Behalf Of parminder
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2016 12:01 PM
To: Carolina Rossini
Cc: <bestbits at lists.bestbits.net> bestbits at lists.bestbits.net&gt
Subject: Re: [bestbits] Fwd: WTO Needs Far-Reaching Digital Trade Pact, Experts Say

On Monday 25 January 2016 04:09 PM, Carolina Rossini wrote:
Not entering in the more philosophical discussion now

..(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....

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".

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 .

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'.

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.

parminder

parminder

On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 5:34 AM, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net<mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>> wrote:
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...

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.

parminder

On Monday 25 January 2016 02:47 PM, Carolina Rossini wrote:

http://www.law360.com/internationaltrade/articles/749648/wto-needs-far-reaching-digital-trade-pact-experts-say
WTO Needs Far-Reaching Digital Trade Pact, Experts Say

Share us on:   By Alex Lawson
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.

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.

“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.”

The authors specifically cited the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership and the still-underway 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.

“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.

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.

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 drawn fire<http://www.law360.com/articles/746082/obama-issues-formal-tpp-call-as-gop-clashes-loom> for leaving the financial services sector on the outside of those protections.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.

--Editing by Bruce Goldman.

--

Carolina Rossini
Vice President, International Policy
Public Knowledge
http://www.publicknowledge.org/
+ 1 6176979389 | skype: carolrossini | @carolinarossini

--

Carolina Rossini
Vice President, International Policy
Public Knowledge
http://www.publicknowledge.org/
+ 1 6176979389 | skype: carolrossini | @carolinarossini

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Carolina Rossini
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Public Knowledge
http://www.publicknowledge.org/
+ 1 6176979389 | skype: carolrossini | @carolinarossini

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