Digital Trade

From Bloomberg: Since 2009, China has blocked Facebook, the world's largest online social media network. This year, Renren, one of China's largest social networks, plans to raise $500 million on the New York Stock Exchange (NYX). So a Chinese social network can tap U.S. capital

Last week, Google posted a paper entitled "Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information."  There's a Technical Appendix (p. 17 of the document) called "Applicability of the WTO rules to restrictions on free flow of

In Foreign Affairs, this is from Betsy Gelb and Emmanuel Yujuico (of IPE Zone): Another example of a failed effort to apply a largely American vision of technology to a non-U.S. cultural environment involves the Internet search giant Google. In January, after the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights

His full post: Well, there certainly are a surfeit of Sino - Americantiffsgoing on at the moment . Over at Reason, Ron Bailey offers an intriguing solution to one of these problems -- use the WTO as a crowbar to bring down the Great Firewall of China : When China joined the

Anupam Chander has posted International Trade and Internet Freedom on SSRN.  From the abstract: Can trade liberalization serve the cause of political liberalization in authoritarian states? In this short essay, I suggest that trade law might bolster political freedoms by liberalizing Internet trade. Trade law puts pressure on state repression

In Foreign Policy, journalist Jordan Calinoff asks, "Is web censorship just an excuse to drive out foreign competition and give a boost to Chinese brands?"  He then writes: ... Google, like Yahoo before it, has been systematically forced out of the market by a Chinese government determined to purge

Google's possible exit from China is all over the news.  Are there any trade issues in there?  Possibly: Lawyers said that Google and the US might have a legal basis for suing China at the World Trade Organisation, a move that would further complicate relations between Washington and

News from Chile, related to U.S. - Chile FTA rules on copyright protection: The Chilean House of Reps has formally rejected the latest attempt Chilean President Michele Bachelet to “reform” that country’s copyright laws to include ISP-level content filtering. Pres Bacehlet had argued that it’s necessary in

Brian Hindley and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama have published a working paper on "Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law."  From the abstract: This paper suggests that many WTO member states are legally obliged to permit an unrestricted supply of cross- border Internet services. And as the option to