Is it about Net Neutrality in the US or Protectionism
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 22nd Nov. 2017
With the rise of internet based services and service providers especially in emerging markets, there has been a rise of startups. Quite a few of these innovative young things do not find the same reception in the host emerging markets as they would have expected in developed world. This may be on account of lack of infra or digital consumption patterns or culture or language barriers besides legal hurdles and/or under preparedness. Many professionals who have graduated to being entrepreneurs in their host countries then either try going back to their jobs or start to try out as entrepreneurs back in the developed world.
So now we have a sudden urgency whereby the telecom lobby is becoming stronger and this is cited as a chief reason for proposed changes to the rules governing net neutrality. This raises several questions especially regards net content and service providers who are not based within the country, about smoothness of data transfers etc. Also it seems that the US internet giants seem to be ready that other countries may create similar rules that favour their own entrepreneurs though it may not have been said explicitly. And this may kick-start another bout of protectionism which might be now in service industry.
Some of the regional trade partners of the US in Asia and Africa might be looking at different priorities like the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and wanting to attract Foreign Direct Investments. However developments like this might require some thoughts to be spared on how to define the rules via which business would be regulated. Already there countries like Malaysia and templates like the European rules on data/privacy protection which have had their impact on trade in services. Over a period, this is likely to boil down to demand for newer regulations which for the sake of privacy or data protection or telecom lobbies etc. which would camouflage protectionism.
To be developed…