A draft agreement aimed at creating uniform trade rules
throughout the Western hemisphere has been released by the US Trade
Representative’s office. The Federal Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) trade agreement includes a proposal that will force
operators of ccTLD such as “.br” (Brazil) and “.ca” (Canada) to
settle domain name and trademark disputes through the ICANN
procedure.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
has been operating a domain name dispute service since 1998. The
FTAA proposal would oblige ccTLD operators in North and South
American excluding Cuba to follow the Uniform Dispute Resolution
Procedure developed by ICANN for settling domain name disputes.
US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick said that the
publication of the FTAA draft text was an “unprecedented effort to
make international trade and its economic and social benefits more
understandable to the public”.
