[governance] Now business wants to lead policy making

[Chris Prince Udochukwu Njoku]

Dr. Mueller's second paragraph makes a lot of sense. Somebody like me would
always wonder why a body that makes policies for international trade
consists of only governments. Much, if not more, of cross-border trade is
done by the private sector whose inputs, I think, are necessary, just like
we all argue for multistakeholder approach to Internet policies.

One may sensibly argue that our national governments similarly alone make
policies that drive most things non-government people and bodies do in our
countries. Yes, but how many of those policies actually optimally benefit
the stakeholders excluded from the policy process? If WTO consults with
non-government stakeholders (for I don't know whether it does), that's OK
by me, but the matter of non-transparency raises much concern as it creates
the impression that any consultations with non-members might be ending in
"agree-on-one-thing-and-do-a-different-thing."

CPU

___________________________________
Sent from Magnum 7X smartphone
On May 13, 2016 5:02 PM, "Mueller, Milton L" <milton at gatech.edu> wrote:

> Parminder:
> I am curious about your response to this initiative. I know that in your
> world, anything that a business does is bad, but please tell me this:
>
> Many people have complained about the WTO and other government-government
> trade negotiations because they are closed to other stakeholders and not
> transparent. It appears that Ma is proposing a departure from that. The
> WeTP would have business, "governments and NGOs and other organisations
> participating.” Of course, one would have to know more about the terms and
> conditions of "participation" but I see a potential for movement forward
> rather than backwards.  Please tell us why this is worse than the status
> quo?
>
> Dr. Milton L. Mueller
> Professor, School of Public Policy
> Georgia Institute of Technology
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-
> > request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of parminder
> > Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2016 3:35 AM
> > To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; BestBitsList <
> bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>
> > Subject: [governance] Now business wants to lead policy making
> >
> > A recent announcement by Alibaba's founder Jack Ma exposes what the real
> > intent, and the problem, with business led multistakeholderism is,
> something
> > a lot of people/ groups have perhaps innocently got into supporting....
> He
> > proposes a new business led initiative to frame global e-commerce rules,
> > which would rival the WTO, which can keep making them for offline trade.
> > And he is entirely serious, with Alibaba already working with a number of
> > groups and intending to present the proposal to G 20 later this year..
> To me it
> > is a political shocker, but that is where much of multistakholderism
> ideology
> > is headed.
> >
> > I wrote an op-ed on this issue in yesterday's The Hindu, which is at
> > http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/a-borderless-economy-that-will-
> > be-controlled/article8581476.ece
> >
> > We must re-assess what does unhinging of the role of legitimate political
> > actors in key public policy areas means. It just transfers power to a
> few global
> > corporates to runs our societies as a corporatocracy. Many of our
> discussions
> > here on mulitistakeholderism as a sovereign political form need to be
> seen in
> > this context.
> >
> > parminder
> >
>
>
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