There is much to be gained by reaching agreement on data privacy, and much to he lost by failing to agree. The stakes aria high. The U.S.-EU commercial relationship is the largest in the world, by far. Beyond that, the very future of the vastly promising electronic commerce marketplace may well hang on whether we can find ways to bridge our final differences. It's not a choice between privacy and electronic commerce.
Privacy is essential for electronic commerce to flourish.
People simply will not post their personal information on the Internet unless they receive some guarantee of confidentiality. If we want the benefits of electronic commerce, we must ensure privacy. But a disruption of data flows would he a disaster of historic proportions. It would threaten our ability to carry on trans-Atlantic trade at even current levels, let alone expand it. As a first step, we compared the Directive with the principles on which United States privacy protections are based.