Would web surveillance of protection work?

In our paper for the Evenett and Baldwin book on 'murky protectionism', Andrew Stoler and I outline a surveillance mechanism for the G20 that we think will dissuade governments from making regulations that would harm world trade (further, see the graph at left.)

The mechanism we propose has not been used previously to expose protectionism but it is certainly in use in other contexts to bring policies under the spotlight of public scrutiny.

For example, I referred a couple of weeks ago to recovery.gov which the Obama administration is using to report on 'stimulus' spending. Now there's an open surveillance website that is tracking and examining projects that are candidates for some of the 'pork'

"StimulusWatch.org was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed 'shovel-ready' projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects." Extract from Stimulus Watch: Keeping an Eye on Economic Recovery Spending

Here's what Andrew Stoler and I propose. You'll see the similarity. Please download and review our paper. We'd really like to have your feedback on this idea.

"In 2009, the most effective way to make information immediately available around the globe is through the Internet. Additional surveillance does not need to be ‘run’ by an existing institution or even located in a single media outlet. But for practical purposes a single high profile website, funded and managed by for example, the World Bank, would improve the effectiveness of surveillance. This proposal calls for the G-20 countries to agree on some standards that could be monitored at the website at their April 2009 meeting (more about these later). Surveillance would then operate as follows:

• Participating governments (G-20 and any others who signed-on to the G-20 standards) would be invited to notify actual or planned measures by other governments that were inconsistent with the standards adopted by the G-20
• Private sector bodies (business, non-business, academic) and individuals would be able to post (moderated) information on protectionist measures and their (moderated) views on any notified measures. Private information and comments would not be limited to measures breaching the standards adopted by G-20 governments.
• G-20 governments, and others that signed on, would agree to respond to allegations concerning a breach of the standards within 10 days of the notifications appearing on the website. They may also respond to any other criticisms."

Tags for this entry: trade g20 protection surveillance