U.S. Wants Free Trade On Internet

Under pressure to quickly build a secure online marketplace for American business, President Clinton pushed Tuesday to make the Internet a “global free-trade zone” and promised to put key patent, privacy and copyright policies in place within 12 months.

He and Vice President Al Gore were hosts for an East Room reception of industry executives to endorse a presidential task force’s call for a hands-off, no-new-taxes approach to regulating business transactions on the worldwide computer network.

The Internet “should be a place where government makes every effort … not to stand in the way, to do no harm,” Clinton said.

Some industry leaders have accused Clinton of moving slowly to secure U.S. interests in the expanding area of Internet commerce. And many remained unhappy Tuesday on various issues, including that the administration has not budged on the restricted sale of encryption devices.