"So why is it possible for hard copies of books to move across international borders but not electronic copies? The answer is that publishers, who have intellectual monopolies over these works, for their own reasons have not done the deals to make it possible."
Pretty much....
Which company winds up getting the rights and revenue from the e-books? Should an American company get exclusive rights, because the author is American? Or maybe the first company that the author deals with gets it?
Or: Let's say you're a mid-sized Aussie publisher, and a US publisher approaches you to publish a book -- and then withholds all e-book rights and revenues. On the day that you release the hardcover version, the US company publishes the e-book in Australia for a 33% lower price. That US publisher is now competing against you, with a product that has lower overhead and cost less. Doesn't sound very enticing to me, especially once e-books really take off.
I might add that as e-books take off, I expect these types of rights issues to proceed a bit smoother than they do today; and as the issues go away, the "sausage-making" of international rights will be ignored by the buying public.
As to importing paper books, there's a huge difference between importing a handful of copies to satisfy collectors, and importing thousands of copies if you don't have the rights....