The World Trade Organisation this week holds its annual Public Forum. Policymakers, NGOs, and others from around the globe will be in Geneva to, as the WTO itself puts it, “seek answers to global trade challenges.”
Google will be participating to help ensure future trade agreements protect the free flow of information across national borders. Until now, the WTO and other trade organizations have concentrated on bringing down barriers for physical goods. We believe they should also look at protecting and fostering the flow of data and other information online.
Let there be no doubt - Google believes free expression is a human rights issue and the protection of human rights is all by itself a more than sufficient reason to ensure open networks stay open and free. That said, a compelling economic case exists for open networks. Moves by many countries to block services and disrupt data are one of the largest potential obstacles and opportunities to increasing trade and development in the 21st Century.
This issue extends far beyond Internet companies. A wide range of industries -- from finance to media to manufacturing -- depend upon free flows of information to deliver their services and products across borders. Increasingly, however, governments around the world are taking steps to restrict such flows. The number of governments that control the Internet in one way or another has grown to more than 40, up from about four in 2002. More and more governments are building firewalls, restricting Internet content and attempting to place domestic requirements on the storage and processing of data. Countries will use various justifications for these actions such as citing the need to increase local employment, economic stimulus, or for national security.
The WTO can do much to stop this negative trend - we hope that it and other trade bodies will put the principle of free flow of information at the heart of all future trade agreements.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
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