Both countries oppose the taxation of eCommerce and do not in any way wish to impede this growing form of trade at this time. This, however, does not mean that the issue has gone away. Many countries feel that it is unequitable to sell products over the internet with an advantage over other products sold within the same country. The current stance seems to be that there will be no international taxation at this point in time, however, countries are free to determine tax laws within the borders of their own country. The U.S. is not expected to support taxation of any kind on eCommerce for fear of crippling small businesses.
Cybercrime is an issue which many countries feel strongly about.
The U.S. will make it a priority to close the loopholes currently existing in our ability to prosecute criminals. The EU also intends to work hard to develop a set of international rules that will allow us to deal with cyber criminals in a proper way. As the OECD is currently dealing with the issue and a special group called the Lyon Group are both specifically attempting to come up with a resolution to the cybercrime problem, the most we can expect from the Summit this weekend is for our leaders to walk away with an awareness and understanding of the issue rather than a specific piece of legislation. Further to keep in mind are the differences in opinion on balancing transparency with freedom of expression. On the third key issue of Internet security, officials were clear that we can only expect there to be a committent to dealing with the problem, but that it is not possible to achieve a common law between countries to regulate security on the net.