US unilateralism will be increasingly untenable as time goes on. This is one such example.

Free trade is generally sold as a series of restrictions on other governments, but the requirements of the current regime require compromises that strike at the heart of law enforcement, consumer safety, and worker protections.

The “soft economic power” (blaackmail) that the US uses to influence domestic policies of other nations, up to and including elections, will increasingly be directed back toward the US.

Banks want data pulled from US

By Mark Ballard
Published Tuesday 3rd July 2007 09:53 GMT

The central banks of China and Russia have joined private companies in calling on Swift, the international financial intermediary, to pull all non-US data from America, The Register has learned.

SWIFT has found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. The organisation secretly handed over personal data to comply with demands from the US to aid the country’s investigation into terrorist finances after the September 11 attacks. By doing so, it broke the data protection laws of many EU countries.

The move raises questions about the perceived security of commercial data held in the US. Swift conducts its own privacy audits of US counter-terrorism subpoenas on financial transactions it manages for the banking industry.

The EU also struck an agreement with the US last week to establish its own oversight of the US operation. SWIFT has also applied for Safe Harbor protection of its data in the US, yet is still taking pressure to withdraw from the US seriously.

“There are other countries that would like to see data situated in the EU rather than the US,” said a well-placed source.

China and Russia were “notable” among countries whose central banks had expressed their concerns to Swift. The European Central Bank, which also used Swift’s services, has been criticised by EU authorities for letting the EU look at European financial data in secret.

Swift is trying to break into the domestic banking markets in China and Russia and is keen to get off on the right foot with local authorities. In India, where Swift is also trying to make a splash, the banks are said to be investigating alternatives.

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