4 ms·

That sounds like you're against international trade in general, since most countries benefit from buying varying amounts of cheap stuff from other countries, wh

by jhgb 5y ago

That sounds like you're against international trade in general, since most countries benefit from buying varying amounts of cheap stuff from other countries, where the rules (and conditions in general) are different. Somehow, for most people, that's not been a problem so far, though.

alibarber 5y ago
I don't think it's really comparable - as the rules at play here are designed to protect the privacy of EU persons. There are plenty of things that I could buy from parts of the US that are considered unsafe in the EU for example, and so it is forbidden for me to engage in trade and get them. They would (theoretically) be confiscated at a border. Despite some politicians best efforts and desires, there's no practical way to stop someone 'importing' privacy damaging web traffic, so the risk of non-compliance is being loaded onto foreign website operators. Therefore should a US website desire to follow EU laws, there would be no restriction on them being accessible to EU people.
- jhgb 5y ago
  But with international trade you're also eating your cake and having it, too. Doesn't necessarily mean it's the exactly identical cake, and I didn't even claim that. Just that eating your cake and having it too happens all the time.
mcv 5y ago
This is actually a very important point: international trade can and does bypass many local regulations. For example, a lot of countries banned slavery and child labour, and yet import plenty of products created by slavery and child labour in other countries. And we don't talk about this nearly enough. Everybody loves being able to buy super cheap clothes from sweatshops in Bangladesh. Everybody is still going to enjoy the football world championship in Qatar, played in stadiums built by what's effectively a form of slave labour. We should definitely enforce our humanitarian values also through our trade and other agreements, otherwise they're meaningless.
- jhgb 5y ago
  I did say "for most people". Obviously there are people not comfortable with certain things in international trade.

by jhgb 5y ago

alibarber 5y ago

I don't think it's really comparable - as the rules at play here are designed to protect the privacy of EU persons. There are plenty of things that I could buy from parts of the US that are considered unsafe in the EU for example, and so it is forbidden for me to engage in trade and get them. They would (theoretically) be confiscated at a border. Despite some politicians best efforts and desires, there's no practical way to stop someone 'importing' privacy damaging web traffic, so the risk of non-compliance is being loaded onto foreign website operators. Therefore should a US website desire to follow EU laws, there would be no restriction on them being accessible to EU people.

jhgb 5y ago
But with international trade you're also eating your cake and having it, too. Doesn't necessarily mean it's the exactly identical cake, and I didn't even claim that. Just that eating your cake and having it too happens all the time.

mcv 5y ago

This is actually a very important point: international trade can and does bypass many local regulations. For example, a lot of countries banned slavery and child labour, and yet import plenty of products created by slavery and child labour in other countries. And we don't talk about this nearly enough. Everybody loves being able to buy super cheap clothes from sweatshops in Bangladesh. Everybody is still going to enjoy the football world championship in Qatar, played in stadiums built by what's effectively a form of slave labour. We should definitely enforce our humanitarian values also through our trade and other agreements, otherwise they're meaningless.

jhgb 5y ago
I did say "for most people". Obviously there are people not comfortable with certain things in international trade.