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Evans Urges E-Commerce, Trade In Asia
by William New
Leading a delegation of 15 U.S. business leaders in Beijing, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans on Tuesday oversaw the signing of a grant for an e-commerce project in China.
The grant to provide management and technical support to Sinopec International in the development of an e-procurement platform is one of four signed under the U.S. Trade and Development Agency that will provide funding to leading-edge fields, including renewable energy, the environment and aviation, the Commerce Department said.
Evans is leading the first business-development trip to China since that nation joined the World Trade Organization in December. They met with Chinese and American business leaders and government officials, including President Jiang Zemin and Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng. The group left for Shanghai on Tuesday.
Starting his Asia trip in Japan last Friday, Evans signed an agreement to revitalize travel and tourism between the United States and Japan. In a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Evans touted the economic benefits of entrepreneurship, innovation and trade. In a press conference, he said he would stress to China its need to comply with its WTO obligations, including the institution and enforcement of laws protecting intellectual property rights.
On a separate question on Russia's possible removal from a requirement for Congress to vote annually on normal trade relations, Evans said the Bush administration is pushing Congress to act, but he did not offer any prediction on when or if it would happen. "I don't want to predict, or I don't want to try and forecast the timing," he said.
Meanwhile, Commerce has announced that Evans will lead a business-development trip to Mexico on June 17-20. Evans and some 15 business leaders from various sectors, including information technology and telecommunications, will visit Mexico City and Monterrey.
European Commissioner Questions China's Telecom Rules
Erkki Liikanen, the European commissioner for enterprise and information society, on Friday questioned a Chinese regulation that may restrict foreign telecommunication firms. He raised the issue during a trip to China.
China's telecom reform is underway, Liikanen said, with the removal of the monopoly and the introduction of competition in most areas. "Nevertheless, as in all other countries, the devil is in the detail when it comes to implementing competition in the telecom sector," Liikanen said in the opening speech of a European Union-WTO seminar series at the China-Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
For instance, a "regulation on the administration of foreign invested telecommunications companies" published in December "gives rise to a number of questions about conditions regarding foreign investment," and "raises a large number of questions with regard to WTO compatibility," he said. "The December regulation appears to impose some restrictive conditions and to introduce some burdensome procedures for foreign companies."
Liikanen also raised concerns about technical barriers to trade, such as informing WTO members of technical regulations, and Chinese efforts to harmonize standards with international ones.
Study Shows Chinese Dissidents May Win Internet War
RAND is preparing to release a lengthy study entitled "You've Got Dissent! Chinese Dissident Use of the Internet and Beijing's Counter-Strategies."
The study was authored by James Mulvenon and Michael Chase, and conducted by RAND's National Security Research Division, which does research for the U.S. military, among others.
The study asked whether the rise of the Internet in China would lead to greater opening of society or provide new tools of control for the communist government. The results of the draft version, which were presented by Mulvenon to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China earlier this month, found a lack of evidence that the government would succeed in clamping down on Internet use.
Researchers detected a rise in efforts to bypass government crackdowns on access to foreign news sources and other forbidden information. And although improved communication can lead to greater disagreement within activist groups, the Internet has provided a relatively inexpensive way to spread information widely, the study said.
The government, meanwhile, has employed both high- and low-tech methods to catch dissidents and is becoming ever more savvy, the study said. The government blocks Web sites and e-mails, and it monitors, filters, provides disinformation about and even hacks some sites. More commonly, however, is the government's use of the search and seizure of equipment, the use of informants and shutdowns of physical information infrastructure.
RAND asserted that the lack of a credible challenge to the communist regime in China is evidence that the tactics are working. But it concluded, "The scale of China's information technology modernization would suggest that eventually time will be on the side of the regime's opponents."
Bush Proposes Free-Trade Agreement With Morocco
With King Mohammed VI of Morocco, President Bush on Tuesday announced that the United States will pursue a comprehensive free-trade agreement with Morocco. Bush used the opportunity to make a pitch for Senate passage of presidential trade-negotiating authority and the extension of the Andean Trade Preferences Act.
Morocco and the United States have had a bilateral investment treaty, and the United States already has free-trade agreements with Israel and Jordan. U.S. exports to Morocco over the past six years have averaged $475 million annually, while imports from Morocco were $450 million in 2001. Semiconductors are among the products Morocco already may ship duty-free to the United States.
In addition to tariff elimination, the proposed agreement would include commitments to increased access to the Moroccan services sector for U.S. companies, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. In addition to the telecom and tourism sectors, opportunities might exist for U.S. firms in the energy, transport, financial services and insurance sectors.
The agreement would reinforce Morocco's commitment to transparency, openness and the rule of law, and would include increased protection for intellectual property and specific provisions to encourage the development of e-commerce, USTR said. The agreement also would support Morocco's efforts on environmental protection and labor, including the expansion of employment opportunities, USTR said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick will visit Morocco, Bush said.
U.N. Group To Study Measures Against 'Digital Divide'
The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Information for All program decided this month to launch a study leading to recommendations on ways to shrink the global "digital divide." An example of the gap is that in 2000, 0.4 percent of people living in sub-Saharan Africa used the Internet, compared with 54.3 percent of U.S. residents, UNESCO said.
The program will focus on development of information policies on all levels, based on the principle of access to information as a basic human right. It also will look at developing human resources, strengthening institutions that serve as gateways for information access, developing information processing and management tools and systems, and developing information technology for education, science, culture and communication.
The program's intergovernmental council also will address the digital preservation of heritage, as information on the Internet disappears rapidly.
Ex-Clinton Official Tapped To Head U.S.-South Africa Panel
Robert Mallett, a former deputy Commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, has been named chairman of the U.S.-South Africa Business Council.
The council, which is sponsored by the National Foreign Trade Council, is working with the White House and USTR on plans for a bilateral free-trade agreement. Mallett is currently senior vice president for corporate affairs at Pfizer.
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