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The Trade Maestro Chats Online
by Danielle Belopotosky
World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy fielded nearly 200 questions during an online chat on Tuesday.
Over the course of an hour-and-a-half during a break from watching the Olympics in Turin, Italy, the trade czar answered broad questions on everything from whether the WTO hinders the developing world, if there is a timeframe for Russia's accession into the body and if trade agreements between two countries hurt the multi-country trading system.
The answers: 1) "No, not if developing countries use the system effectively;" 2) no timetable has been determined for Russia; and 3) yes, bilateral trade deals can hinder multilateral agreements but are sometimes "complementary and supportive" in the long run.
But many of the questions revolved around China, intellectual property rights and technology. Lamy said that although China has made "huge efforts" to comply with its WTO commitments, "there is room for improvement." He further said that while it is impossible to predict when China will overcome its "developing country" status, he expects China to play a future "leadership role" within the WTO.
Lamy said IP enforcement seems "to be one of the sticking points in China's relations" with other WTO nations. But he added that it is up to the members to leverage WTO tools to push China toward more effective IP enforcement.
When asked if IP rights should remain primarily centered within the WTO or revert back to the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization, Lamy said intellectual property has become a trade issue "as it impacts on the conditions of competition between countries," but WIPO remains a specialized agency focused on IP rights.
As for regulating e-commerce, Lamy said the WTO's historical role has been to "discourage taxes" on Internet purchases, but it is not clear how that role should be expanded. "It is not obvious what the role of the WTO should be in this field, other than to underwrite an enabling environment" while recognizing national sovereignty on "certain kinds of transactions on public policy grounds."
And for those concerned about what the trade maestro predicts for the outcome of ongoing WTO negotiations, the poetic Lamy said member nations are 60 percent on their way to concluding the talks by the end of 2006. "These negotiations do not move like a nice countryside stream but more like a river with rapids," he said.
Of Spam And Cyber Squatting In China
China's Internet regulators will target junk e-mail sent via the Web and mobile telephone networks, the nation's official new agency Xinhua announced Tuesday.
Under the new Ministry of Information Industry regulation, e-mail providers that offer "value-added" services must register with the government to receive licenses to send e-mails to the Chinese public. Those in violation of the rules could face $3,750 in fines.
Chinese Web users receive more than 16 junk e-mails per week, representing more than 60 percent of their total, according to a recent survey by the China Internet Association. The association will maintain and publish a list of e-mail providers accused of sending spam.
Any companies sending unsolicited commercial e-mails will have their licenses revoked, and e-mail advertisers must alert recipients by including the words "advertisement" or "AD."
The ministry also has created a Web site for consumers to send complaints about spam. The country has more than 17,000 licensed telecommunications companies that provide value-added services. According to the ministry, spam includes junk e-mails, fraud, computer viruses, erotic content or "rumors."
The regulations also require mobile users to register their phones with their real names in an effort to curtail illegal text messages sent through phones.
Meanwhile, the China Internet Network Information Center on Tuesday narrowed its definition of "cyber squatters," according to Xinhua.
The center, which administers Chinese Internet addresses ending in .cn, said it no longer will refer to cyber squatters as those who register domains "for the purpose of selling or renting it." Instead, the definition only will encompass those who "sell or rent [the domain name] to competitors of a company whose rights are infringed upon."
There currently are more than 1 million .cn domains. The new rules take effect March 17.
U.S. Encourages Democracy In Middle East
The State Department announced Friday that the United States will invest $5 million to advance "freedom and democracy" in Syria.
The department's Middle East Partnership Initiative will award grants ranging from $100,000 to $1 million to support groups that promote government accountability, access to "independent" information, and freedom of speech and association. President Bush started the partnership in 2002, and it has received $293 million to date.
"The United States stands firmly with courageous men and women struggling for their freedom across the Middle East," Elizabeth Cheney, the principal deputy assistant secretary of State in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that her department wants $75 million in supplemental funding for fiscal 2006 to support "the cause of freedom and human rights in Iran." Congress appropriated $10 million for programs in Iran in fiscal 2006.
The additional funds "would enable us to increase out support for democracy and improve our radio broadcasting, begin satellite television broadcasts" and expand fellowship programs for Iranian students, she said.
The U.S. government aims to work with nongovernmental groups to help unify the "Diaspora community" in Iran, a senior administration official said at a State Department briefing on the issue last week. The department requested that the two administration officials leading the briefing not be identified.
Through increased funding, the U.S. government hopes to expand its influence on Farsi-language television and Radio Farda, which is a joint initiative between Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Voice of America, according to an official.
Another official said the administration would look at ways to develop programming and use the Internet, text messaging or other electronic communications to promote democracy -- particularly by reaching out to students and young people. "The promotion of democracy inside Iran, inside Syria ... is critical to our national security interest," a State Department official said.
While Iran has more than 3 million Internet users, its government has been effective in censoring political or allegedly immoral content, including thousands of "non-Islamic" Web sites, according to Reporters Without Borders. The government also has targeted Web logs since June 2003 student demonstrations and uses filtering technology to try to restrict access to blogs.
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