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Ticktock Goes The Trade Clock
by William New
The clock is ticking for congressional feedback on the completed U.S. trade agreements with Chile and Singapore, following the White House's notification to Congress about the deals.
Congress has 90 days from the Jan. 30 notification to peruse the agreements, following which the Bush administration can sign them. The International Trade Commission will have another 90 days to prepare reports on the deals, and then the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will send the legislation to Congress at a politically opportune time to trigger a final, 90-day countdown to a yes-or-no vote on the deals.
The earliest that legislation could be sent to Congress is June, according to a House Ways and Means Committee staffer.
The Computing Technology Industry Association, Information Technology Industry Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers were among the associations that hailed the news of the notification.
Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, praised the Chile deal but said more work could be done on labor and environmental provisions.
Europeans Launch E-Learning Portal
The European Commission on Tuesday launched a Web site that will provide information on European-wide e-learning initiatives and links to public and private initiatives at the national level. In addition, the site includes contributions from experts on a range of related subjects.
Viviane Reding, the European education and culture commissioner, said at the portal's launch that the focus on e-learning is shifting in Europe. Where it once was on the technology and infrastructure behind e-learning, the focus now is on content, practices, standards and quality. E-learning is one of the pillars of the eEurope action plan.
Reding said she and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen recently presented a proposal for an e-learning program to run from 2004 to 2006. It would establish a legal framework in four areas: closing the "digital divide," deploying virtual campuses, fostering Internet partnerships among European schools, and supporting e-learning projects in EU member states. Reding urged quick approval of the e-learning program by member states and parliament.
Finland Opposes EU Copyright Directive
The Finnish parliament has returned a national copyright proposal drafted by the government, according to Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI). The chairman of the parliamentary hearing committee said the heavy criticism of the bill makes it impossible to accept as is.
The proposal was based upon the European Union copyright directive, which only two countries managed to adopt before the Dec. 22 deadline. The chairman, Jyrki Katainen, said lack of clarity in a law that could lead to criminal sanctions of up to two years in prison is risky. He also said the measure could harm the country's IT competitiveness.
EFFI has long opposed the law for being too favorable to the content industries.
Expert: Court Could Solve EU Patent Mess
A proposed European Patent Court could help overcome differences in the way courts in European Union nations apply patent laws in litigation that many argue have discouraged the robust development of high-technology industries found in countries like the United States and Japan, a Swiss legal expert argued in a new paper.
Writing in the winter edition of European Affairs, Stefan Luginbuehl told the history of the court's proposal and said it faces a critical juncture in 2003. Luginbuehl is a legal adviser at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property in Bern, Switzerland.
There has been substantial progress in harmonizing application processes for patent protection and patent laws across Europe, but judicial decisions vary so much that they make obtaining and enforcing patent protection in Europe expensive and complicated, Luginbuehl said. The European Patent Office, established by the European Patent Convention, has the authority to issue European patents for states signing the convention.
When a European Commission proposal to create an EU court stalled in 2001, the European Patent Office tasked a working party to develop the proposal. It calls for an international judicial organization independent from the patent office that could handle hundreds of cases per year. The text is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.
Russia Urged To Open Services Sector
Russia should use the negotiations on its bid to join the World Trade Organization as an opportunity to modernize its services sector, a pair of industry representatives argued in another European Affairs piece.
Robert Vastine, president of the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI), and Vladimir Gololobov, an associate at CSI, said Russia must attract "vastly increased inflows" of foreign, direct investment in order to encourage growth in its knowledge-based services. Some $33 billion in investment will be needed to achieve Russia's goal of matching European levels of telecommunications development, they wrote.
But investors are reluctant for several reasons, including regulatory barriers such as limits on the percentage of ownership allowed for foreign investors, the authors said. They also said privatization in Russia has slowed, with 25 percent of the state telecom monopoly now in private-sector hands; there is little public input in rulemaking; licensing and certification requirements remain complicated; and regional and national implementation of new laws is inconsistent.
In the telecom sector, Russia should make strong commitments in cable, satellite and other enhanced services, Vastine and Gololobov said. The country also should accelerate opening its market to long-distance and international calling services, an independent regulator should be established, and the foreign ownership cap of 49 percent should be rescinded, they said.
Russia also should guarantee full market access and equal treatment for Internet service providers and for data processing, software implementation and database services, they said. And the nation should make strong commitments to open audiovisual services to competition and agree to implement WTO intellectual property protections.
Scholars Question Internet's Democratizing Effect
The Internet may not pose an insurmountable threat to authoritarian regimes, the the authors of a new book titled Open Networks, Closed Regimes and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The authors, Shanthi Kalathil, a Carnegie associate and former reporter at the Asian Wall Street Journal, and Taylor Boas, a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley, conducted a survey of eight authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries. Based on the evidence from the countries -- China, Cuba, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- they conclude that conventional wisdom may be wrong.
"Beliefs about the Internet's inevitable challenge to authoritarian rule imply that policymakers can simply encourage free trade and promote technological development, letting the positive political consequences flow naturally from these actions," Kalathil and Boas wrote. "The analysis that we present in this study suggests that such thinking is oversimplified. In reality, specific concrete actions are most important for the promotion of democracy, in both the technological and non-technological spheres."
The authors concede that certain types of Internet use may pose political challenges to authoritarian rule but found that other uses reinforce such rule. Therefore, they call for increased attention to how different uses of the Internet are likely to affect the regimes.
But they added, "It may be important to support some uses of the Internet, such as e-government measures that increase transparency and reduce governmental corruption, even if they pose no challenge to authoritarian rule in the short to medium term."
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