AlHijjah 7, 1432, Nov 3, 2011, SPA -- Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, IBM, GE and other top-tier American companies on Thursday urged the United States to fight for trade rules that protect the free flow of information over the Internet, Reuters reported. The unveiling of principles hashed out by the companies over the last nine months comes at a crucial moment, Rick Johnston, senior vice president for international government affairs at Citigroup, told reporters. While past trade agreements have largely focused on eliminating tariffs on manufactured and agricultural goods, "we're now in an era where the economy is literally driven by the Internet. It's a digital economy," Johnston said. The group's report says future U.S. trade pacts must "reflect the new realities of the global economy: specifically, the contribution of the Internet toward economic growth, toward job creation and exports," said Bob Boorstin, director of public policy for Google, which has battled Internet restrictions in China and other countries. One dangerous trend is a requirement by an increasing number of governments for companies to locate data centers within a country's borders in order to provide services, Boorstin said. Such laws are discriminatory and contrary to the notion of cross-border trade, the coalition said in its paper, which also criticized actions "governments around the world" have taken to block access to information services such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and YouTube. -- SPA
