Background Image
Table of Contents Table of Contents
Previous Page  50 / 72 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 50 / 72 Next Page
Page Background

48

Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2016

www.read-wca.com

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.

Telecom

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

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