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EU, U.S. Officials 'Converging' On Antitrust
by William New
The European Union and the United States are trying to make their antitrust policies more uniform, EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said Tuesday.
Monti met this week with three top U.S. officials: Charles James, who heads the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. Monti spoke to reporters after a meeting with Sens. Herbert Kohl, D-Wis., and Michael DeWine, R-Ohio, the chairman and ranking Republican of the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee.
European and U.S. officials are "looking for ways to harmonize" antitrust policies in order to prevent rare EU rejections of mergers such as that of GE and Honeywell, Kohl said.
In their meetings, officials developed a work program for the next year, including intensifying work on a merger group, he said. The sides also reached a "high degree of convergence on the multilateral dimension of competition policy," he said, and they discussed coordination of the timing of antitrust investigations.
Monti reviewed with officials the European Union's investigation of Microsoft. Microsoft has not yet replied to the latest EU query related to the case, he said.
Monti also said European and U.S. officials "see merit" in having a few core principles on competition policy in a new round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization, but they are not in full agreement on the issue.
In other news, an official said the European Union has been formally notified of the proposed merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer.
Bush Bails Out Of Asian Tour
President Bush has canceled next month's planned trip to Tokyo. Bush will attend the meeting of leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the third week of October but has postponed stops in Tokyo, Seoul, South Korea, and Beijing, the White House said Tuesday. The visits will be rescheduled "when circumstances permit."
Meanwhile, the White House sent to the Senate on Tuesday the nomination of Charles Lawrence Greenwood, a career member of the senior Foreign Service, to have the rank of ambassador during his tenure as the APEC coordinator.
U.S.-Jordan Trade Agreement Breaks High-Tech Ground
The free-trade agreement with Jordan that the Senate approved Monday may not involve a large volume of bilateral trade, but it contains several benchmark provisions expected to be used as models for future trade deals. The agreement is the first to include labor and environmental provisions within the core text, and to allow sanctions or "appropriate and commensurate" actions if dispute resolution over violations of the deal fails.
The agreement also contains far-reaching intellectual property protection and extends trading rules to new areas, such as e-commerce, according to a statement by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Both nations agreed not to impose customs duties on electronic transmissions, or to impose barriers to access for digitized products or for services delivered electronically, the State Department said.
In terms of access to the U.S. market, the agreement puts Jordan on similar footing with Canada, Mexico and Israel.
Jordan's King Abdullah will come to Washington for a working visit with Bush on Sept. 28. The focus will be on cooperation against terrorism.
Transatlantic Tech Partnership Against Terrorism
The Telecommunications Industry Association and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute are working together to develop specifications for emergency-service applications after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Project MESA is the first international initiative to involve users and organizations from sectors that address public protection, disaster response and civil defense. The project's aim is to ensure that law enforcement officials have communications technologies as advanced as those of criminals.
One of the group's goals is to ensure the interoperability of communications systems during emergencies.
Inching Toward A U.S.-South American Trade Deal
The United States and four nations of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- bolstered their trade relationship moderately this week. Officials from the "Four-Plus-One" met in Washington but did little more than reaffirm their desire for a new round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in November, and for progress in talks for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Simultaneously, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Regina Vargo consulted officials from five Central American countries that have expressed interest in free trade with the United States. She traveled to Managua, Nicaragua, where the semiannual FTAA vice ministerial is being held this week.
The United States already is engaged in free-trade negotiations with all nations of the Western Hemisphere except Cuba. The Four-Plus-One trade ministers announced an additional work program under the Council on Trade and Investment. Working groups will address e-commerce, industrial trade, investment development and agriculture.
Each nation will appoint a Four-Plus-One coordinator, and they will meet before the end of the year to review progress in the WTO, coordinate FTAA talks and agree on measures to deepen the trade relationship in certain areas among the five countries.
Europeans Adopt Web Guidelines For Disabled
The European Commission on Tuesday adopted a communication on improving the accessibility of public Web sites. The communication outlines informal, voluntary guidelines on the design and structure of Web sites for public information providers and site builders to follow.
Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen and European Disability Forum President Yannis Vardakastanis introduced the guidelines, which are designed to make the Internet more accessible to people with disabilities.
The 15 EU member states and European institutions will target year's end for adoption of the guidelines, exchanging information and benchmarking their progress. An inter-institutional group will be created to promote adoption and implementation of the guidelines. An experts group under the eEurope action plan also monitors progress on Web accessibility.
Business Must Lead On Cyber Security
A cyber-security conference held last week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) made one thing clear, according to a U.S. industry source who attended: Businesses must take the lead in maintaining computer security, just as they did in combating the Year 2000 computer bug. The OECD will write guidelines based on best practices in the private sector, he said.
At the meeting, there appeared to be consensus for a global coalition on cyber security to help businesses keep pace with governments on cyber attacks. At the moment, there is only the Washington-based Internet Security Alliance, the source said. The tech industry needs to develop true information-sharing through a global organization and still keep the efforts a secret, he said.
The Paris-based OECD this week launched a "second-generation" Web site that makes information about the organization and its member countries more accessible and transparent.
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