DRAFT DECLARATION IS SLIMMER BUT STILL TROUBLESOME, U.S. SAYS
Delegates made better progress than expected at last week’s “intercessional” meeting leading up to Dec.’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) but left several key issues unresolved, David Gross, State Dept. U.S. coordinator- international communications & information policy, said Mon. The week-long meeting produced a winnowed-down version of the draft principles govts. would be asked to adopt at WSIS, with a revised plan of action due out around mid-Aug., he told us. But the documents aren’t yet ready for prime time, Gross and industry groups said.
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Before the intercessional meeting, Gross said the U.S. would focus on narrowing the issues under discussion to big- picture items capable of winning high-level support (WID July 10 p4). He said Mon. that negotiators had made “significant progress” in that area, resulting in a consensus that the draft principles should be “much, much shorter.” The text now has been cut in half, he said, and delegates agreed it should be tightened even further. It’s “materially better” than the “hodge-podge” that emerged from the 2nd Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting, he said.
Gross praised the tone of the meeting, saying delegates dealt with each other cooperatively and seriously. There was agreement on most issues, he said, resulting in more substantive progress than he had expected. However, he said, serious issues must be resolved before the U.S. would be comfortable supporting the documents.
One issue of “grave concern” to the International Chamber of Commerce is language -- dropped from the text last week -- on the need for independent regulators, Senior Policy Mgr. Ayesha Hassan said. Gross said the language was dropped because of a lack of consistency of understanding among countries about what independent regulation was. Different countries have different regulation models, he said. The hope is that delegates will find language to describe independent regulation in a way that’s not one-size-fits-all, he said.
The ICC also expressed alarm about a proposal that would require telcos operating in various countries to pay into national “solidarity funds” aimed at providing universal access. The ICC opposes the idea, Hassan said, because it would remove any choice at the national level for deciding how to provide universal access to ICTs and because it would control how businesses used profits.
The U.S. and others also have made clear they think the concept of a separate, independent telecom fund is “not a useful exercise,” Gross said. Universal access can be better funded through traditional private-sector channels than through what the U.S. considers a tax on providers, he said. Many countries have national universal access funding systems, he said, but a worldwide scheme isn’t appealing.
The revised text of the declaration wasn’t available at our deadline but is due out momentarily, Gross said. The entire document remains bracketed, meaning it’s all still up for discussion. Delegates spent little time on the action plan last week, Gross said. But Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who chaired the intercessional, will work with others to “massage” the action plan along the lines of the revised principles, he said. Both documents will be up for discussion at the PrepCom 3 meeting in Sept.