The drafting of an "information technology charter" the Group of Eight leaders aim to adopt at their summit in Okinawa Prefecture later this month has been plagued by conflict, Japanese government sources said Wednesday. Although the G8 leaders hope to issue the IT charter at the end of the July 21-23 summit, rough bargaining is under way due to conflicting interests between Japan and the United States, which has the most advanced technologies in many IT areas, the sources said.
The envisioned charter — the focus of the Okinawa summit — is to be adopted in addition to a joint communique addressing political and economic issues.
Washington is demanding that other G8 nations agree to insert into the charter specific guidelines calling for a simplification of existing official regulations that could stonewall global commercial transactions related to IT.