Trade
     Just one week before a highly anticipated vote in Congress on granting China a key trade deal, a panel of lawmakers and experts echoed the contentious debates that have been swirling around the issue for weeks. George Becker, president of United Steelworkers of America, said a permanent trade deal with China would leave the United States without a stick to wield if China continued human rights violations. "They do not recognize the rule of law. They have yet to live up to any of their trade agreements," Becker said, speaking to an audience at the Economic Strategy Institute's three-day conference on globalization Monday.
     Rep. Sander Levin, D-MI, said the answer is to combine "confrontation and engagement," calling for Congress to pass the deal, by building in safeguards in case China doesn't live up to its obligations. Levin and Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-NE, last week, proposed a plan for monitoring China's compliance, including a panel to evaluate human rights in China and legislation providing safeguards from import surges. It also sets up a way to ensure China keeps its trade promises.
     Last week, Commerce Secretary William Daley said that the chances of passing PNTR would be "slim to none" without a version of parallel legislation offered by Levin and Bereuter. Daley said without some strong version of the Levin-Bereuter proposal, that is more than just a "fig leaf," supporters will not be able to attract enough Democrats in support of the trade deal. As a result, House Republicans would have to get 190 members of their party to support it, which is unlikely, he said.
     Meanwhile, Pascal Lamy, the European Union's top trade official, is in China this week negotiating a trade deal that would pave the way for China to join the World Trade Organization. After three days of talks, no breakthrough had been reached, but Lamy remained optimistic that he could strike a deal. This is his second visit to China in two months after a round of talks in March failed.

Encryption
     Some U.S. high-tech companies and others called on the federal government to further loosen encryption regulations in response to a recent announcement by the European Union that it would dramatically liberalize export restrictions on products destined to about 10 friendly countries. The comments were filed with the Commerce Department in response to encryption regulations put in place in mid-January that provided a significant portion of the encryption export relief U.S. companies had been seeking for years. The government gave companies and others until Monday to file comments on what changes they would like to see to the regulations. Commerce Undersecretary for Export Administration William Reinsch has said the administration would consider changing its regulations so that they are in line with the European Union's moves.

Cybercrime
     The Group of Eight meeting this week in Paris focuses on ways to fight cybercrime. The meeting of industrialized nations, co-hosted by France and Japan, comes just on the heels of several high-profile computer crime incidents, such as the "love bug" virus. Disparate national laws have foiled investigations into cybercrime and international groups are increasingly looking towards a global standard for fighting these crimes. Monday's meeting opened with a call to prevent illegal "digital havens" from forming around the world. French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement pushed for countries to agree on a world convention on cybercrime and harmonize their laws. The Paris meeting will not make any concrete decisions about cybercrime, but will submit its conclusions to the G8 summit planned for Okinawa, Japan, in July. The G8 also could respond to a draft of a cyber-crime treaty, written by the Council of Europe. The group, which includes such non-EU countries as Canada, South Africa, Japan and the United States, would agree to ensure their national laws make it a crime to steal, intercept, damage or alter computer data. In addition, the proposal calls for Internet service providers to be forced by law to store data for use in criminal cases.
     In response to the G8's discussion, the Global Internet Project released a statement that Internet security must be handled at the international level, calling on the private sector, not governments to take the lead on network security. The group, whose members include Internet, telecommunications, software and financial services industries, urged governments to "lead by example" on Internet security issues. They also called for better cooperation between law enforcement and business to fight cybercrime.

Exports
     As the clock winds down before a Congressional recess, Senate Banking Committee members are considering ways to move legislation to reauthorize the Export Administration Act. One possibility includes a foreign assistance bill sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms, R-NC, who is a chief opponent of the EAA measure. Negotiations and a unanimous consent agreement on EAA failed in early March when lawmakers could not agree on how to translate their agreement into legislative language.
     In other export news, Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, D-NV, introduced last week a bill that would speed some changes to computer export controls faster than allowed under current law. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-UT, and others, would cut the time Congress has to review changes to computer export controls from 180 days to 30 days. The bill would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2000, to include the most recent spate of computer export control changes announced by the Clinton administration earlier this year.

Business
     In a move to highlight Ireland's importance as a high-tech hub, Irish President Mary McAleese met with Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, R, Monday to discuss ways that Ireland and Virginia can form technology partnerships. During a breakfast with about 100 high-tech leaders in Northern Virginia's tech corridor, McAleese outlined possible joint ventures between Ireland and Northern Virginia such a hiring an Irish business envoy to focus on Northern Virginia. McAleese also wants to increase tech education partnerships between Irish universities and U.S. schools such as George Mason University and the University of Virginia.
     "Ireland has a track record of attracting substantial foreign investment in the knowledge-intensive, high-growth, high value-added sectors," said Ireland's ambassador to the United States, Sean O'Huiginn. "As Virginia's prosperity is based on e-commerce and the information society, we are natural partners."
     Ireland is the second largest exporter of software products in the world and the government has been aggressively promoting the nation's role in e-commerce and technology community.

Business
     Perhaps signaling the end of U.S. domination in the Internet economy, Internet portal Lycos and Spanish telephone company Telefonica reached an agreement this week that will integrate Lycos into Telefonica's Terra Networks. The merged company, to be called Terra Lycos, could mark the first time a major U.S. Internet company is bought by a European access provider. It will also give Terra, which is 66 percent owned by Telefonica, an entrance into North America to sell its Web services. The company plans to operate in 37 countries.
     In other business news, Compaq Computer announced last week that it would invest $100 million in South Korean Internet companies this year. The money would go towards forming alliances with Korean Internet service providers as well as strengthening Compaq's services and consulting in key business deals. Compaq said it would also invest in e-commerce and electronic banking in South Korea.

Domains
     The organization tapped to manage the Internet's domain name system made moves last week toward establishing a board of directors after creating two committees that will nominate and manage the election of nine "at large" board members. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at-large membership was formed to give Internet users worldwide a voice in the ICANN decision-making process. The moves drew criticism from some who said that ICANN established the committees behind closed doors and without public comment.
- by Caroline Broder