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WTO Negotiators Hopeful About China
by William New
The World Trade Organization working party on China's accession reconvenes Thursday in informal meetings, culminating in a one-day formal meeting July 4, according to sources in Geneva. Negotiators are infused with a new optimism since the United States and the European Union both settled outstanding bilateral issues with China in recent weeks, a trade official said. Only Mexico has yet to finish its bilateral deal with China, and it already has indicated it will not block the accession, the official said.
Once all of the bilateral agreements are resolved, the WTO secretariat will have to "plurilateralize" agreements, picking the best deal in each area to craft the final terms for accession. That process is time-consuming because each country then must verify the text before yet another working-party meeting to adopt the document. But WTO officials hope final action could be completed by the planned trade ministerial in Doha, Qatar, in November so the council of ministers can approve the China deal.
China has agreed to implement the existing WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
Tech Issues Rank Low For U.S.-Japanese Confab
Telecommunications and other high-tech issues probably will not be as high on the agenda as last year when President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meet on Saturday, government sources said this week.
While the agenda continues to evolve, sources said the two leaders hope to reach agreement on a new round of bilateral deregulation negotiations. As proposed, the economic initiative would launch minister-level talks beginning this fall that would cover a range of trade issues, possibly including information technology and telecommunications. The initiative also could include a new effort on science and technology, one informed source said.
The initiative calls for including the private sector in the talks, but there is some disagreement over how to do so, sources said. U.S. business groups are split over whether to hold a business dialogue. A source familiar with the matter said people in "new economy" sectors, such as IT, are more in favor of that approach.
Generally speaking, neither Bush nor Koizumi has established himself as a tech dynamo. A Japanese official in an interview this week criticized the Bush administration as neglecting the issue. He singled out the fact that Bush appointees have tended to be older and less Internet-savvy than their predecessors.
Meanwhile, Bush on Tuesday swore in the new ambassador to Japan, former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker, who also was the chief of staff to President Reagan. Bush made reference to the length of Baker's service in government, noting that between them, Baker and former ambassadors Mike Mansfield, Walter Mondale and Thomas Foley have accumulated more than 100 years of elected office. "That's a lot of balloon drops," Bush said.
Japan continues its economic struggles, and from the U.S. standpoint, a strong global economy depends on Japan's rebound. Thus economic issues will rank high, with security issues, in the bilateral meeting. Koizumi is a zealous economic reformer, and the United States supports his efforts because they will open Japanese markets for U.S. goods and services.
But a paper published this week by the Economic Strategy Institute's Hiromi Murakami argues that structural reform will not be enough to rescue the flailing economy. Japanese high-tech firms are moving to China, he said. For instance, Matsushita Electronics has opened digital communications research and development facilities in Beijing.
Meanwhile, trade tensions have heightened between Japan and China in some areas, such as mobile phones, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
Those Troublesome Model Privacy Contracts
The model contracts for safeguards on personal data transfers adopted by the European Commission on June 18 could have extensive implications, according to an analysis released this week by the law firm Alston & Bird.
The contracts would require European Union data exporters and non-EU data importers to agree to liability for privacy violations and give individuals the right to sue the businesses for alleged infringements, the firm argued, but that language is not explicitly stated in the model contracts.
The analysis criticized the June 18 decision as ambiguous. The language in the "frequently asked questions" accompanying the contracts suggests that any data exporter or importer who enters a contract without the above obligations might not be deemed to have the "adequate protections" required by the European Union.
Alston & Bird also noted that the alternatives to the model contracts might be limited for many companies. Another ambiguity is how effectively the European Union will enforce the directive within its own member countries. "[I]t is not clear whether any, some or all of the [EU data-protection authorities] will require widespread use of the model contract to authorize the flow of data that flows through the EU to outside the EU," the report said.
Bush, Mbeki Discuss South Africa's 'Digital Divide'
In a joint statement following their Tuesday meeting, Bush and South African President Thabo Mbeki committed to closing South Africa's "digital divide." "We ... affirmed that we have many common interests, in particular the growth of agricultural trade and a shared commitment to working together to bridge the digital divide," they said.
The two also pledged to back the launch of a new round of WTO negotiations and reaffirmed that their governments will work cooperatively on science and technology, among other things. A joint secretariat will be established to coordinate consultations in those areas.
Canada's Ambitious Internet-For-All Goal
Delivering high-speed Internet service to every community in Canada by 2004 would cost in the range of $2 billion to $4 billion, a blue-ribbon task force studying the impact of the victorious Liberal Party's campaign promise on broadband found.
The panel also recommended a review of federal rules restricting foreign investment in Canada's telecommunications firms in an effort to allow them to raise more capital for the large-scale public-private initiative, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
India Must Choose Who Will Lose
The Indian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority faces a tough choice over technology for its "local loop" infrastructure.
Lobbyists are busy trying to steer the regulatory body from a switching standard called v5.2 that is made by only two equipment manufacturers in the world, Lucent and LG. Competitors such as Motorola, Samsung and Nortel are busy trying to sway things toward IS 634, a more commonly found standard they produce.
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