[DC-Trade] Welcome and an outline of the DC's work
Jeremy Malcolm
jmalcolm at eff.org
Fri Mar 10 15:57:40 PST 2017
Welcome to all members of the Dynamic Coalition on Trade and the
Internet. Sorry for the slow start as we have been waiting for everyone
who has expressed interest to join up. Currently we have 21 members
from three stakeholder groups, and we can get underway.
For those who missed it, in my last message to this list I set out the
objectives and the preliminary action plan for this dynamic coalition,
and its relationship to the Open Digital Trade Network out of which it
grew. That message is archived at
https://opendigital.trade/pipermail/dc-trade/2017-February/000010.html.
This email will cover a few topics:
1. The mailing list and website
2. Some news updates
3. Work items:
1. Background paper
2. Building contacts with trade institutions and delegations
3. Recommendations for improvements of transparency and openness
*1. Mailing list and website*
You can use this mailing list to post any news, questions, or proposals
that you think will promote the agenda of the Dynamic Coalition which is
to act as an interface for the exchange of information and best
practices between the negotiators of Internet-related trade agreements
and the bodies in which they work, and the Internet Governance Forum and
its multi-stakeholder community.
The website is to be used for information that is intended to be less
transitory, so that it builds up a permanent record. There is a
(currently empty) wiki
<https://opendigital.trade/projects/dc-trade/wiki> there, a document
repository <https://opendigital.trade/projects/dc-trade/documents>, a
subscribable shared calendar
<https://opendigital.trade/projects/dc-trade/issues/calendar>, and an
issue tracker <https://opendigital.trade/projects/dc-trade/issues> which
can be used to keep track of our work items. My experience of the Open
Digital Trade Network is that these might not be much used, but
personally I have found them useful and you might too. A video tutorial
that I prepared for that network on how to use the platform is available
<https://youtu.be/EguZsh0Po_Q>.
*2. Some news updates
*Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is no more, the
Internet-related topics with which it dealt have been proposed for
inclusion in at least two other current or forthcoming trade
negotiations, which are a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), and Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP). Here is EFF's recent opinion article about this,
which links to a public letter to trade negotiators warning them not to
repeat the mistakes of the TPP: *
* https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/will-tpp-live-nafta-and-rcep*
*Meanwhile**at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), several delgations
released papers on digital topics at this month's TRIPS Council
meeting. A WTO report of this meeting which links to those papers can
be found here:
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news17_e/trip_01mar17_e.htm
Finally in United States news, the United States International Trade
Commission (ITC) is holding a public hearing next month, and soliciting
comments in advance of that hearing, about global digital trade, for
purposes of a report that it is preparing for the United States Trade
Representative (USTR). The report will include, amongst other topics,
an investigation of regulatory and policy measures that might impede
digital trade, including:
* FDI and other market access restrictions;
* cross-border data flow limitations (data localization requirements,
Internet blocking, censorship, cultural regulations of digital
content, and data privacy protections);
* cybersecurity regulations and limitations on the choice of
encryption technologies;
* ISP regulations, including limitations on ISPs intended to protect
IPR; and
* rules determining liability for third-party content.
If anyone is interested in writing or collaborating upon a submission to
this enquiry, I can supply more information.*
3. Work items
*Four initial work items for this dynamic coalition were suggested, one
of which will be our inaugural meeting at the next IGF. The other three
are treated below. As mentioned above, our website can be used to track
work towards completion of these work items, which some of you may find
helpful.*
3.1. Background paper*
This was originally described as a mapping exercise, but we finally
settled on calling it a document describing the major trade agreements
that are in place or under negotiation, as well as the venues where this
takes place, and identifying the key Internet governance issues that are
the subject of such agreements and negotiations. It will be one of our
major deliverables and will be a useful reference going forward.
EFF and members of the Open Digital Trade Network have already developed
some documentation that can be used as a reference for developing the
background paper. These are:
* Background document for 2016 Strategy Meeting on Catalyzing Reform
of Trade Negotiation Processes:
https://www.eff.org/files/2016/02/02/background_document.pdf
* Notes and report from same 2016 meeting:
https://www.eff.org/files/2016/03/15/meeting_report.pdf
* Background document for 2017 Trade Transparency Roundtable meeting:
https://www.eff.org/files/2017/01/10/trade_for_the_digital_age_download.pdf
If anyone wishes to volunteer at this stage to help put together the
background paper please let me know, otherwise I will make a start in
due course and put it out for contributions and comment.
*3.2. Building contacts with trade institutions and delegations*
So far this dynamic coalition is, predictably, composed of civil
society, private sector, and technical and academic community members.
Like most other dynamic coalitions, we are lacking in governmental
participants. Yet one of our aims is to build a network of
representatives from trade institutions and delegations for liaison with
our Dynamic Coalition and the broader IGF community.
Therefore if anyone has suggestions of members from government and trade
institutions whom we could approach to become participants, or has ideas
for our strategy in building such a network, please do share your
suggestions. Otherwise, we can begin to build out this network once we
have developed some deliverables such as our background paper and
recommendations.
*3.3. **Recommendations for improvements of transparency and openness*
The dynamic coalition also aims to develop a multi-stakeholder approach
to facilitating the transparency and inclusiveness in international
trade negotiations and the domestic consultation processes.
On my part, I would like to think that this could involve working
towards the development of a set of recommendations that can be endorsed
by dynamic coalition members as best practices, and I would be
interested to know whether other members agree on this approach.
The Open Digital Trade Network has already participated in the
development of a set of recommendations for the improvement of
transparency and participation at a domestic U.S. level. These
recommendations would need some modification if they were to be adapted
for use in other countries and institutions, but I would like to kick
the conversation off by setting them out here:
/1. Publish U.S. textual proposals on rules in ongoing international
trade negotiations/
USTR should immediately make available on its website the textual
proposals related to rules that it has already tabled to its
negotiating partners in the context of the TTIP, TiSA, and any other
bilateral, regional, or multilateral trade and investment
negotiations it undertakes.
/2. Publish consolidated texts after each round of ongoing negotiations/
USTR should impose as a prerequisite to any new or continuing trade
negotiations that all parties agree to publish consolidated draft
texts on rules after each negotiating round, including negotiations
conducted on the entire agreement or a specific element or chapter
and among trade ministers or other officials of every party to such
negotiations or of a subgroup of the parties to such negotiations.
/3. Appoint a "transparency officer" who does not have structural
conflicts of interest in promoting transparency at the agency/
USTR should immediately appoint a transparency officer who does not
have any structural conflicts of interest in promoting transparency
at the agency.
/4. Open up textual proposals to a notice and comment and public
hearing process/
USTR should initiate on-the-record public notice and comment and
public hearing processes—at least equivalent to that normally
required for other public rulemaking processes—at relevant points
during the generation of government positions.
/5. Make Trade Advisory Committees more broadly inclusive/
If proposed U.S. texts and draft texts from negotiations are made
publicly available, the main official advantage of the Trade
Advisory Committee system – access to that information – would
disappear. However, if Trade Advisory Committees are to be retained
in addition to public notice and comment and public hearing
processes, then resources must be devoted to making membership and
effective participation in these committees more accessible to all
affected stakeholder groups, including non-industry groups.
What are thoughts about working towards the development of some
multi-stakeholder recommendations such as these as a dynamic coalition
output?
--
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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.eff.org/pipermail/dc-trade/attachments/20170310/49aaa40a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 455 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.eff.org/pipermail/dc-trade/attachments/20170310/49aaa40a/attachment.sig>
More information about the Dc-trade
mailing list