Telecom Groups Push for NAFTA Changes

the U.S. Trade Representative Friday. “The U.S. approach to renegotiating NAFTA should reflect the increasing importance of Internet-enabled trade to the U.S. economy,” said CCIA. “For the Internet to serve its trade-enabling role, and for local entrepreneurs to drive crossborder economic activity, trade negotiators need to ensure predictable liability protections are in place across countries where users and content creators are sharing information on Internet platforms,” said CTA. The agreement should include principles consistent with an open internet, said Public Knowledge. PK also commented on the agreement’s provisions on intellectual property, though it said NAFTA may not be the correct place for such provisions. “When multiple bilateral and regional trade agreements address substantive intellectual property in detail, they run the risk of an inconsistent and complex patchwork of obligations,” PK said. If copyright provisions are part of NAFTA, they should preserve public interest balance and “require limitations and exceptions to copyright, which are essential in modern societies and economies,” PK said. North American trading partners should “maintain a balanced system of intellectual property regulation” said CCIA. NAB, CTA and the Satellite Industry Association said NAFTA shouldn't include rules that make it difficult for U.S. companies to work with Canada and Mexico. The agreement should address Canadian retransmission of U.S broadcast content and Canada’s “discriminatory tax treatment” of U.S. broadcasters, NAB said. The agreement “should require copyright limitations and exceptions like fair use that have been essential to U.S. innovation and the strength of the U.S. tech sector,” CTA said. “The absence of such provisions in Mexico leaves the U.S. tech sector vulnerable there -- particularly as Mexico strengthens other parts of its copyright system,” CTA said. NAFTA should “prohibit” the “trade barriers which create performance demands on U.S. satellite services in Canada and Mexico,” SIA said. The Communications Workers of America suggested a host of changes to the agreement to improve its effects on labor. “NAFTA has had a hugely negative impact on CWA members and other working families across this country,” CWA said. “The renegotiation of NAFTA must replace this deal written by and for multinational corporations with an agreement that is designed to create jobs and raise wages for working men and women."