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Hill Staffers Visit WTO In Geneva
More than a dozen Hill staffers are in Geneva this week to learn more about prospects for a new round of trade talks at the World Trade Organization. In a trip organized by the Coalition of Service Industries, about half of the 35 or so delegates are staffers, a bipartisan, bicameral group from leadership, committee and individual offices. Most are interested in trade issues, including trade in services. The group includes AT&T, AOL Time Warner, insurance companies and banks.
"We want to build support for the WTO among congressional staff," said an industry source on the trip. "We're trying to impress on them how important services are. ... It's what keeps the trade deficit from looking really, really horrendous."
The meetings last from Monday to Wednesday and include visits with the so-called Quad — the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union. Participants met with acting U.S. ambassador to the WTO Dave Shark, normally the deputy chief of mission.
Staffers are trying to determine how U.S. presidential trade-promotion authority (or "fast track") would affect the new round and what the temperature in Geneva is for addressing labor and environmental issues within the WTO. These are the key issues befuddling the trade policy community in Washington.
On e-commerce issues, the United States and Japan in particular expressed hope that the stalled WTO e-commerce work program can get started. Japan is interested in how digital goods are treated at the WTO. The European Union, on the other hand, is unconvinced that e-commerce needs to be treated separately from the services negotiation.
WTO members are still far apart on whether the trade ministerial next fall in Doha, Qatar, should be the launching point for a comprehensive round of further trade liberalization, or whether it should be limited to the two built-in agenda items, services and agriculture. A decision needs to be made by mid- to late summer, the industry source said. If they wait longer, a controversy like the one that erupted in Seattle in 1999 will occur, leading to a breakdown over differences.
Why Didn't We Think Of This Before?
Trade wonks in Washington have been looking for ways to surmount differences on trade and labor and environmental issues. Experts at a Brookings Roundtable on Trade and Investment Policy event debated two proposals.
Georgetown University professor Theodore Moran focused on ways to improve treatment of lower-skilled workers in foreign-owned plants. Moran suggested leaving labor issues to the International Labor Organization while bolstering surveillance, enforcement and worker training.
The second proposal, by Lori Kletzer, a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics, and Robert Litan of Brookings' Economic Studies Program, identified two ways to tackle painful U.S. worker dislocations that are at the core of resistance to further trade liberalization. They suggested wage insurance for certain displaced workers upon re-employment and subsidies for health insurance to cover certain displaced workers who remain unemployed.
A U.S.-European Love Fest?
A study released last week by the European-American Business Council (EABC) found a record high $565 billion in European investment in the United States, supporting more than 7 million jobs. Texas, California and New York were tops for investment, and Europe was the top investor in 43 states, ranking second in the other seven states.
"Policymakers must recognize that the economic ties between the U.S. and Europe represent the single-most important commercial relationship in the world — and policy actions must take this into account," said EABC President Willard Berry.
Europe Gets Serious About E-Commerce
Europe is on a tear in government attention to e-commerce. Efforts are underway to increase the skilled information technology workforce, with demand expected to rise from 10 million jobs to 13 million jobs by 2003.
But European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Anna Diamantopoulou wants to stave off a gap in skilled IT workers. She said, "We know what we need to do: substantially increase investment in human resources; rapidly strengthen skills and lifelong learning policies; sharply increase the participation of women and older workers; increase mobility across Europe; and continue to modernize our labor markets."
Under the e-Europe plan launched last year, progress is being made to connect all schools to the Internet by the end of 2001, especially at the secondary level. But progress on helping teachers achieve digital literacy by 2002 is moving more slowly, according to a European Commission statement.
In Europe, some 43 percent of workers use a computer at work (74 percent of white-collar workers), but only 22 percent have had any formal computer training. The digital gap remains problematic as well, though Internet penetration has grown by more than two-thirds in the last six months.
Penetration varies greatly, with a European Union average of 53 percent. Unemployed Europeans have half the Internet access of employed citizens, and high-income earners have three times higher usage rates, the statement said.
All Part Of The Plan For 2001
The European Commission's work program for 2001 encompasses the e-Europe action plan, which will include measures to increase consumer confidence. Priorities include promoting new forms of governance, expansion of the union, pushing a new round of trade talks at the WTO, proceeding with trade negotiations with South American nations, and finalizing China's accession to the WTO.
The commission also will focus on poverty reduction and on a new economic and social agenda, including debating the development of an immigration policy based on labor-market needs. It also will work with the European Council and the European Parliament to encourage them to adopt the telecommunications regulatory package this year.
A Brussels conference from March 1-2 will address the potential impact of the e-economy on European businesses and policies. Commissioners and staffers will meet with about 200 high-level industrialists, entrepreneurs, consumer representatives and academics.
The Sun Never Sets On E-Britain
British embassy official Simon Towler last week explained how Britain will realize Prime Minister Tony Blair's vision of it as "the best place in the world for e-commerce" by 2002. The strategy involves the removal of barriers to e-commerce and increases in third-generation wireless technology licenses, the unbundling of the local telecommunications loop and broadband auctions, plus converging regulations.
Internet penetration and digital TV growth have helped make the United Kingdom Europe's largest e-commerce market. Britain plans to create a new regulator for communications and last week published a white paper on promoting innovation and IT skills. Britain is second only to the United States and "catching up fast," Towler said.
A Good Time To Enter India
The Indian government is preparing to abolish the import duty on computer hardware components and to drop the duty on finished computers from 15 percent to 10 percent, according to the Business Standard in India. Currently, tariffs on parts range from nothing to 35 percent.
India also expects to bring to zero the sales tax on IT hardware and software.
Meanwhile, AOL Time Warner is planning to enter the Internet market in India as its 17th country worldwide, the Economic Times in India reports.
Finally, Think Of The Children
Canadian Justice Minister Anne McLellan said Thursday that the nation's "anti-luring" legislation that targets child predators on the Internet will be debated in March and should become law by June, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
She made the announcement as part of larger announcement of Internet safety initiatives.
- by William New
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