Twelve Reasons to Oppose Rules on Digital Commerce in the WTO

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/16/twelve-reasons-to-oppose-rules-on-digital-commerce-in-the-wto/
Date Written:  2017-05-16
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20772

US-based transnational companies in the fields of information, technology and media are working to create international rules that limit the ability of governments to put restrictions on how they make profits.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

High-tech US-based transnational companies (TNCs) now represent five of the top seven largest corporations in the world, dominating information (Google, number 2), media (Facebook, number 7), retail (Amazon, number 6), and technology (Apple, number 1 and Microsoft, number 3), according to the World Economic Forum.

One of the best investments one of these companies can make is to change the rules under which it operates so that it can extract greater profits from the global economy while preventing their competitors from having a level playing field. They have long used trade agreements to lock in rules favoring their "rights" to make profits, while limiting governments' ability to regulate them in the public interest, often in ways that could not advance through normal democratic channels.