AW: [governance] New report makes clear upcoming WCIT proposals could conflict with WTO Members' obligations

["Kleinwächter, Wolfgang"]

I want to echo Jeanettes observation. What we see is also a growing "competition" among IGOs to get a profile and to position itself as "the leading organisation" in new fields. This reflects conflicts within national governments where Ministries for Economics, Justice, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Technology and Culture have different approaches to Internet Governance. Even in Germany the Ministry of Justice is more on the side of the Data Protection Commissioner and the Ministry of the Interior is more on the side of law enforcement. The majority of governments have no cross-ministerial coordination mechanisms for Internet policies in place. This leads to a situation where one and the same government says "yes" in one intergovernmental organisation and "no" in another intergovernmental organisation. 
 
wolfgang

________________________________

Von: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org im Auftrag von Jeanette Hofmann
Gesendet: Mi 28.11.2012 16:46
An: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Nick Ashton-Hart
Betreff: Re: [governance] New report makes clear upcoming WCIT proposals could conflict with WTO Members' obligations



Hi Nick,

conflicts between international treaties are not that unusual. Given the
increasing density of international organizations and agreements, and
the lack of any formal hierarchy among them legal inconsistencies happen
more often than one may expect.  An example that involves the WTO
concerns intellectual property rights. TRIPS and CBD, the convention on
biological diversity imply conflicting principles. They were negotiated
around the same time but reflect different concerns, actors and venues.
The fact that trade experts and WCIT advocates hardly take notice of
each other seems to make conflicting outcomes even more likely.

jeanette

Am 28.11.2012 16:02, schrieb Nick Ashton-Hart:
> Dear Friends,
>
> I thought I would write to advise you of an important report, just
> released today by LIRNEasia and ECIPE, that makes clear that a number of
> the proposals being put before the World Conference on International
> Telecommunications (WCIT) this month in Dubai could result in conflicts
> for WTO member-states.
>
> Entitled "Whither Global Rules for the Internet? The implications of the
> World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) for
> international trade,"  it was released publicly today at 1400 Central
> European Time.
>
> This report is the first to look at current proposals for WCIT and
> whether they are congruent with binding rules on trade developed at the
> World Trade Organisation. Among the report's key conclusions:
>
>   *
>     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);
>   *
>     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.
>   *
>     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.
>
>
> Matthias and I have found when we meet with the trade community in
> Geneva that there's little awareness of the trade dimension to WCIT
> proposals. Obviously it is in nobody's interest for WCIT to result in
> ITRs that conflict with WTO obligations.
>
> The report may be found here:
> http://www.ecipe.org/media/publication_pdfs/PB201212b.pdf.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Nick Ashton-Hart
> Geneva Representative
> Computer & Communcations Industry Association (CCIA)
> Tel: +41 (22) 534 99 45
> Fax: : +41 (22) 594-85-44
> Mobile: +41 79 595 5468
> USA Tel: +1 (202) 640-5430
> email/IM (Jabber/GTalk): nashton at ccianet.org <mailto:nashton at ccianet.org>
> Skype: nashtonhart
> http://www.ccianet.org <http://www.ccianet.org/>  <http://www.ccianet.org/>
>
> Need to schedule a meeting or call with me? Feel free to pick a time and
> date convenient for you at http://meetme.so/nashton
>




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