WCA January 2016

From the Americas The State Department on 9 th September ramped up the number of people who would be permitted to apply for green cards in October, prompting a rush by thousands of people from India, China, Mexico and the Philippines who had been waiting years for their turn to apply. Many potential applicants readied their extensive paperwork – some of it requiring to be translated into English – only to learn on 25 th September that the department had reversed itself. A lawsuit challenging the about-face asserts that this thwarted up to 30,000 immigrants. Apparently an ordinary bureaucratic mix-up, with officials citing a communications failure between the departments of State and Homeland Security, the glitch is emblematic of the problems attendant on President Barack Obama’s efforts to streamline the deeply flawed USA immigration system. Even applicants in favoured categories can be kept waiting decades for a green card. According to an immigration lawyer consulted by Ms Bhattacharya, the new rules announced – and then revoked – in September would have enabled Indians holding H-1B visas to apply for their green cards up to six months earlier than under the present system. (“How Are H-1B Holders Affected by the US Green Card Application Flip Flop?,” 6 th October)  Frustration and anger at the government’s reversal were not confined to those prevented from submitting their green-card paperwork. Writing in the Washington-based political newspaper The Hill (10 th October), Mario Trujillo quoted from a 5 th October letter from several large technology companies to the State Department, the Homeland Security Department, and the White House: “This is a truly unfortunate example of poorly-conceived execution by your respective departments, one that furthers, rather than mitigates, an ever-growing impairment to our country’s ability to attract and retain the best talent in the world.” The letter was signed by officials of Microsoft, Google, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Cisco, as well as a number of trade groups. In the latest fallout from the Snowden leaks, Europe’s highest court strikes down a data-transfer accord between the EU and the USA “What we need now is to work closely with the Americans to find a solution to get a safe, safe harbour, which is in the interest of both Europeans and Americans.” No doubt Andrus Ansip, the vice president in charge of digital affairs for the European Commission, was making a particular point when he used the word “safe” twice. Only days before, on 6 th October, the Court of Justice of the European Union had declared invalid a long-standing Telecom

data-transfer agreement between the European Union and the United States on suspicions that transmissions from Europe are insufficiently protected in the USA. The title of the agreement: Safe Harbor. The court in its ruling declared that an EU-level agreement with a third country may be overridden if national data-protection authorities find cause for concern about the privacy of data originating in Europe. Given the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden, an American sub-contractor with the National Security Agency, about surveillance of electronic correspondence on the part of the NSA, it was clear which secret sharer the EU’s highest court had in mind. As noted by Natalia Drozdiak, a Brussels-based blogger for the Wall Street Journal , the ruling will likely hit European small businesses especially hard, imposing costs for switching over to “more bureaucratic methods of transferring data.” Ms Drozdiak also pointed out that it creates uncharted legal terrain: the regulator in one country may now block a company’s data transfers to the USA while the regulator in another might allow them. “I’m afraid small and medium-sized companies will face difficulties,” acknowledged Mr Ansip, who said he would be meeting with businesses to discuss practical concerns. But his priority was clearly to keep the EU and the USA beavering away at a new transatlantic deal that would keep the data flowing between two of the world’s largest trading partners. “We have to create a fruitful environment that will encourage free data flows from Europe with the US,” he declared. “The free flow of data is a main aim of the digital single market.” (“After Court Ruling, EU Digital Chief Urges Rapid Data Accord,” 9 th October)  Since the Snowden leaks of classified information, the EU and USA had been working to reform Safe Harbor and address European concerns, with limited success. When the high court announced its invalidation of the original framework, EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova – whose department is negotiating with the USA on a new agreement – said that more time was needed to overcome disagreements.  For his part, Mr Ansip on 9 th October expressed optimism that the two sides were inching closer, telling Ms Drozdiak: “Before the European Court of Justice decision we were making good progress towards an agreement with the Americans.” Then the man charged with coordinating plans to unify the EU bloc’s fragmented digital market reverted to an earlier theme, giving it even greater emphasis: “So there should be a way to ensure that this new safer Safe Harbor is really safe.”

Dorothy Fabian Features Editor

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2016

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