[DC-Trade] Latest version of IGF workshop proposal for submission next week

susan aaronson saaronson2 at verizon.net
Sun Apr 30 12:16:19 PDT 2017


Bill: Thank you. That advice makes a lot of sense to me.

All the best,

Susan


On 4/30/2017 2:35 AM, William Drake wrote:
> Hi
>
> Thanks Jeremy.  Just a few thoughts further to the below:
>
> *All discussions and decisions should be done on-list in a transparent 
> and inclusive manner, that’s the strong expectation/requirement for 
> how Dynamic Coalitions are to work.  We have 30+ people on the list 
> and so far messages from about 3 people.
>
> *The people listed as Volunteered and the one somehow already listed 
> as Invited are largely civil society.  The MAG takes very seriously 
> geo/gender/stakeholdergroup/and intellectual-political diversity, so 
> we have to populate the thing accordingly.  And obviously, speaker 
> choices should be matched to the agenda and the skill sets needs.
>
> *On substance, I guess my concerns with the original text is that is 
> blurs the lines between a) what has been floated (generally without 
> broad support yet) in the WTO’s e-commerce work program, b) what is 
> likely to be formally proposed and agreed for the WTO Ministerial 
> meeting, and c) what has been proposed by certain parties in some of 
> the mega-regionals.  Not only might this look odd to the trade 
> community, but it would be awkward if we’re meeting a week after the 
> Ministerial and talking about a bunch of stuff that didn’t happen 
> there rather than what did.  So my thought was that we either should 
> focus on the Ministerial, decoding its inclusions and exclusions for a 
> IG-oriented audience that probably is not all following WTO happenings 
> (and there will in fact be enough to talk about), or we should address 
> the mega-regionals where (due to negotiating group composition etc) 
> some of the specific items we flagged could get more play.  The 
> problems with the latter are that a) the pace and prospects of the 
> mega-regionals are highly variable and the situation may not be clear 
> in December, and b) there were several workshops last year on the 
> megas, so focusing on them again is sort of like saying we just want 
> to redo and update.  So my personal preference would be to focus on 
> the Ministerial outcomes and their implications for work in the WTO 
> over the next couple years.  This would make us more relevant to the 
> WTO process which is the most institutionalized, and also would draw 
> us further toward the whole roiling debate about developing country 
> interests regarding digital trade, which might offer the possibility 
> of some alliance building.  If we went this route, we could also loop 
> in the work going on in UNCTAD, which has a range of Internet-related 
> trade initiatives underway and would seem a good partner for this.
>
> But that’s just one view, and if the group prefers a more diffuse 
> approach that is less tightly coupled to current negotiations, ok.
>
> In any event we need to hear from more people on list and move toward 
> a consensus quickly as the submission deadline is Wednesday.  Bear in 
> mind too the new MAG’s form has gotten more complicated, so we have to 
> have detailed answer to multiple questions (remote participation is 
> key) and establish digital profiles with bios for each speaker etc. 
>  So there’s a couple hours of busy work to be done by the submitters 
> after we settle on the plan.
>
> Best
>
> Bill
>
>
>
>> On Apr 28, 2017, at 20:55, Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org 
>> <mailto:jmalcolm at eff.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I am pasting below the latest version of the IGF workshop proposal 
>> that several of you have expressed interest in supporting.  Because 
>> we only have a few more days to finalize the proposal, your comments 
>> and suggestions are now urgently needed.
>>
>> All of the panelists now listed as volunteering have been 
>> confirmed—but probably we shouldn't include all of them on the panel, 
>> which is rather CS-heavy.  Any suggestions about how we could have a 
>> more balanced panel—including other people (not civil society) to 
>> propose, and perhaps some panelists with different views?
>>
>> Bill Drake has suggested we should tweak the proposal to do EITHER 
>> one of two things: 1. De-emphasize the prospect of the Internet 
>> governance issues that we mention being taken up at the WTO, which he 
>> judges as unlikely, and instead to emphasize the fact that these 
>> issues are on the agenda for mega-regional agreements and new 
>> bilaterals.  2. OR else refocus the session on what is actually more 
>> likely to come out of the WTO Ministerial in Buenos Aires, namely 
>> just extending the customs duties moratorium, trade facilitation, 
>> e-commerce for development, and a loose commitment to talk about 
>> future issues.
>>
>> Does anyone else have views on Bill's suggestion?  If anyone thinks 
>> changes to the proposal are needed, please propose specific wording.
>>
>> With whatever feedback we have by then, I'll be finalizing and 
>> submitting this proposal by Wednesday. So I'll be depending on you 
>> between now and then to ensure that it's in the best shape it can be.
>>
>> Here's the current text, also found at 
>> https://opendigital.trade/projects/dc-trade/wiki/IGF_Workshop_2017:
>>
>> --- begins ---
>>
>>
>>     Title: Engaging with the E-commerce Trade Agenda
>>
>> The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference takes place 
>> from 11 to 14 December 2017, just one week prior to the IGF. Key 
>> member states are advocating that the Ministerial Conference should 
>> approve additional substantive work on e-commerce, perhaps even new 
>> norm-setting measures. The IGF will be the first opportunity that 
>> stakeholders have to prepare a plan of action in response to whatever 
>> decision is taken, and to connect the dots between the WTO work 
>> programme and other relevant sources of expertise from the broader 
>> Internet governance community.
>>
>> Possible topics already proposed by certain delegations for the WTO's 
>> work program include encryption, data localisation, source code 
>> disclosure mandates, and intermediary liability rules. All of these 
>> areas have substantial intersections with Internet governance 
>> policies on cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, and freedom 
>> of expression. Yet the WTO, being relatively new to these topics, 
>> lacks deep expertise in many of them, and does not possess strong 
>> connections with all of the stakeholders with non-trade perspectives 
>> to offer on the impacts of rulemaking in this areas.
>>
>> This workshop will facilitate the exchange of information among 
>> interested stakeholders and from external communities that also have 
>> an interest or expertise to offer in the development of 
>> Internet-related global trade rules. Even in the event that the WTO 
>> does not decide to expand its existing work programme on e-commerce, 
>> this workshop will still be relevant as many of the same issues are 
>> also being dealt with in other trade negotiations and fora, including 
>> the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), the North American Free Trade 
>> Agreement (NAFTA), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic 
>> Partnership (RCEP).
>>
>> To facilitate a discussion about Internet-related global trade rules 
>> in general, we will use the following policy issues to engender debate:
>>
>>   * Encryption
>>   * Data localization
>>   * Intermediary liability
>>   * Big data (social, economic, and political dimensions)
>>
>>
>>     Co-sponsors
>>
>>   * Electronic Frontier Foundation (USA, civil society)
>>   * IT for Change (India, civil society)
>>   * Internet Infrastructure Coalition (USA, private sector)
>>   * Diplo Foundation (Malta, academic community)
>>   * Public Citizen (USA, civil society)
>>
>>
>>     Personnel
>>
>>
>>       Volunteered
>>
>>   * William Drake (University of Zurich, USA/Switzerland, academic
>>     community)
>>   * Susan Aaronson (George Washington University, USA, academic
>>     community)
>>   * David Snead (Internet Infrastructure Coalition, USA, business)
>>   * Marília Maciel (Diplo Foundation, Brazil, academic community)
>>   * Gus Rossi (Public Knowledge, USA, civil society)
>>   * Maryant Fernandez (EDRi, Spain/Belgium, civil society)
>>   * Burcu Kilic (Public Citizen, USA, civil society)
>>   * Estelle Massé (Access Now, Belgium, civil society)
>>   * Jean-Baptiste Velut (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3,
>>     France, academic community)
>>   * Aileen Kwa (South Centre, inter gov organisation)
>>
>>
>>       Invited
>>
>>   * Sanya Reid Smith (Third World Network, civil society)
>>
>>
>>       Remote moderator or rapporteur
>>
>>   * Renata Ribeiro (Brazil, civil society)
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Jeremy Malcolm
>> Senior Global Policy Analyst
>> Electronic Frontier Foundation
>> https://eff.org
>> jmalcolm at eff.org
>>
>> Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
>>
>> :: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
>>
>> Public key:https://www.eff.org/files/2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt
>> PGP fingerprint: 75D2 4C0D 35EA EA2F 8CA8 8F79 4911 EC4A EDDF 1122
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>
>
> ***********************************************
> William J. Drake
> International Fellow & Lecturer
>   Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
>   University of Zurich, Switzerland
> william.drake at uzh.ch <mailto:william.drake at uzh.ch> (direct), 
> wjdrake at gmail.com <mailto:wjdrake at gmail.com> (lists),
> www.williamdrake.org <http://www.williamdrake.org>
> ************************************************
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-- 

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Ph.D.
Research Professor of International Affairs, Institute of International Economic Policy
GWU Cross Disciplinary Fellow and Cavalho Fellow, Government Accountability Project

Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/faculty/aaronson.cfm

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