[odf-discuss] India to vote NO

[marbux]

On 8/23/07, Ian Lynch <ian.lynch at zmsl.com> wrote:
>
>
> >
> > Well, India may be good news, but other things are happening that
> > aren't so good.
>
> Ok, but even if MS do get it through its not the end of the game. Who
> would have thought 5 years ago that MS would be having to expend
> millions lobbying and pulling out all the stops just to stay in the
> game. There will be enough dissent for echoes of this to keep on going
> for some time and countries that vote no might well be so pissed off as
> to take unilateral action. Throwing it out is the best outcome but let's
> not get too down-hearted if that doesn't happen. This is a battle, not
> the end of the war :-)


Indeed, even Ecma 376 is approved by ISO there are many battles to come.
Just a few examples:


* Adoption as national standard. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to
Trade section that I quoted above requires member nations to decide whether
to adopt international standards as national standards, and instructs that
they not be adopted as national standards if they were prepared, adopted or
applied "with a view to or with the effect of creating obstacles to
international trade."  And the unharmonized overlap and duplication of
functionality with ODF is a particularly strong argument at that stage. See
e.g., Annex 3 to the TBT treaty, <
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/comms-markets/wto/pdf/tbt-a3.pdf>, and do a
document search for "overlap."

* Every individual government procurement tender that specifies Ecma 376 is
subject to challenge on the same basis, at all levels of governments
signatory to the Agreement on Government Procurement is also subject to
challenge on the same grounds. See AGP Article 6 section 1 <
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/gpa_02_e.htm#article6>:


> Technical specifications laying down the characteristics of the products
> or services to be procured, such as quality, performance, safety and
> dimensions, symbols, terminology, packaging, marking and labelling, or the
> processes and methods for their production and requirements relating to
> conformity assessment procedures prescribed by procuring entities, shall
> not be prepared, adopted or applied with a view to, or with the effect of,
> creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade.
>
> * The marketplace.

Best regards,

Marbux
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