OpenStack 11/04/2014 (a.m.)

• Spain moves to protect domestic media with new 'Google tax' | Technology | The Guardian

  Tags: Internet, newspapers, Google-tax, Spain

  • Newspapers in Spain will now be able to demand a monthly fee from the search engine before it can list them on Google News
  • A similar law passed in Germany saw Google removing the affected newspapers from Google news altogether – before the publishers eventually came back and asked to be relisted after seeing their traffic plummet, a step they said they had to take because of the “overwhelming market power of Google”.

• Japan, U.S. trade chiefs seek to clinch bilateral TPP deal - 毎日新聞

  Get ready to fight TPP fast-tracking in member states. see also ‘Wikileaks’ free trade documents reveal ‘drastic’ Australian concessions.’ Source: The Guardian. http://goo.gl/hicb5h Remember that in the U.S., only Senate ratification is required. The measure will not go before the House before implementation. 

  Tags: globalization, Trans-Pacific Partnership, home-stretch

  • - By Paul Merrell

  • Talks on the TPP, which would create a massive free trade zone encompassing some 40 percent of global output, have long been stalled due partly to bickering between Japan and the United States -- the biggest economies in the TPP framework -- over removal of barriers for agricultural and automotive trade.

    The biggest sticking point has been Tokyo's proposed exceptions to tariff cuts on its five sensitive farm product categories -- rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar -- and safeguard measures it wants to introduce should imports of the products surge under the TPP, which aims for zero tariffs in principle.

    It is uncertain how much closer the two sides can move given that their recent working-level talks saw little progress, negotiation sources said.

  • A summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum scheduled for November in Beijing that Obama and leaders from other TPP countries are slated to join is seen as an occasion for concluding the TPP talks, which have entered their fifth year.

    But the odds on an agreement depend on whether Japan and the United States can bridge their gaps before that.

  • Hiroshi Oe, Japan's deputy chief TPP negotiator, has admitted that talks with his counterpart Wendy Cutler, Froman's top deputy, earlier this month in Tokyo made very little progress.

    One negotiation source said the hurdle for solving the outstanding bilateral problems is "extremely high," suggesting it is still premature to bring the talks to the ministerial level.

    Amari himself had been reluctant to hold a one-on-one meeting with Froman with the working-level negotiations failing to see enough progress.

    But he apparently decided to ramp up efforts in response to strong calls from Washington for arranging a meeting with Froman, who has said the two sides are "now at a critical juncture in this negotiation."

  • The TPP comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

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