President Joe Biden should reverse U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s decision to abandon digital trade provisions at the World Trade Organization, a bipartisan group of 32 senators wrote in a letter to the president Thursday (see 2311160079). Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, led the effort with 30 other senators. This follows a similar request from a bipartisan group of House members. “Retreating from our longstanding principles without offering a viable alternative does not help U.S. workers, it does not help U.S. consumers, it does not help U.S. businesses, and it does not help U.S. allies; it only helps our adversaries,” they wrote. The White House and USTR didn’t comment.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai should reconsider her decision to “abandon important bipartisan digital trade proposals at the World Trade Organization,” Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., wrote the USTR on Thursday (see 2311080043). DelBene and LaHood signed the letter with 36 other members of Congress, including Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; and Adrian Smith, R-Neb. USTR didn’t properly consult Congress before abandoning the digital trade provisions, they said. They raised concerns about China’s Digital Silk Road Initiative, which “permits censorship, surveillance, human and worker rights abuses, forced technology transfers, and data flow restrictions. The “void created” by USTR’s decision will “harm American workers, companies, security, and innovation, while benefitting our largest competitors in the digital space,” they said. USTR didn’t comment.
The Biden administration withdrew its support for World Trade Organization provisions on cross-border data flows and data localization to allow flexibility for domestic policy debate, an Office of U.S. Trade Representative spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. USTR responded after nearly 50 organizations on Tuesday asked the White House to reverse its decision to withdraw support for WTO provisions on cross-border data flows, data localization and source code. Many countries are “examining” approaches to data and source code and the impact of trade rules, said USTR: “In order to provide enough policy space for those debates to unfold, the United States has removed its support for proposals that might prejudice or hinder those domestic policy considerations. The [Joint Initiative on E-Commerce] continues to be an important initiative and the United States intends to remain an active participant in those talks.” Groups including CTA, CTIA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, TechNet, BSA|The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Entertainment Software Association said Tuesday they have “profound concern” about U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai withdrawing support for “disciplines that protect cross-border data flows; prohibit data localization mandates; preclude discrimination against American made digital products; and safeguard sensitive source code from forced disclosure mandates that enable malicious cyberactivity.” These “core disciplines” advance U.S. innovation and competitiveness, they said. This “sudden and perplexing decision of USTR to abandon its global leadership by pulling back from negotiating key digital rules at the WTO must be revisited,” CCIA Vice President-Digital Trade Jonathan McHale said in a statement.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments by Oct. 6, rebuttals Oct. 20, identifying online and physical markets it should consider including in its 2023 “notorious markets” report, said Thursday’s Federal Register. The annual report lists markets “that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting,” said the USTR. Its “issue focus” for 2023 “will examine the potential health and safety risks posed by counterfeit goods,” it said.
The U.S. and the EU are committed to limiting risks of artificial intelligence and promoting “universal human rights and shared democratic values,” officials said in a joint statement Wednesday. The Trade and Technology Council held its fourth ministerial meeting in Lulea, Sweden, Wednesday, co-chaired by European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, EC Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. European Commissioner Thierry Breton also joined. The officials said they're “committed to deepening our cooperation on technology issues, including on artificial intelligence (AI), 6G, online platforms and quantum. We are committed to make the most of the potential of emerging technologies, while at the same time limiting the challenges they pose to universal human rights and shared democratic values.” Officials will cooperate through implementation of the Joint Roadmap on Evaluation and Measurement Tools for Trustworthy AI and Risk Management, they said.
The EU should consider issuing a renewed, unified policy on China, given French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments in April about U.S.-China relations, said European Parliament Member Eva Maydell of Bulgaria Wednesday.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should add Meta to its 2022 Notorious Markets List (see 2202170053) due to the proliferation of counterfeit goods on platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Instagram and WhatsApp, trade groups told the agency in comments last week.
The U.S. and its 13 Indo-Pacific Economic Framework partners closed out their first in-person ministerial meetings in Los Angeles Friday with an agreement to “seek to coordinate actions to mitigate and prevent future supply chain disruptions and secure critical sectors and key products for our manufacturers,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The 14 IPEF countries have “the collective goal of resilient supply chains that can anticipate, withstand, or rapidly recover from shocks and strengthen the competitiveness of our economies within the Indo-Pacific region,” they said in a ministerial statement. “We recognize that strengthening logistics in supply chains, including land, air, waterway, maritime, shipping and port infrastructure, can have broad-based positive effects.”
Two Senate Commerce Committee Republicans -- Rick Scott of Florida and Dan Sullivan of Alaska -- were among five Republican senators who wrote Senate members of the conference committee negotiating how to marry elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260) to recommend changes aimed at strengthening the U.S.’ ability to compete with China. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., complicated negotiations on HR-4521/S-1260 last week by tweeting “there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill.” “Economic competition with China is the single most important geo-political issue facing” the U.S., the five Republican senators said in a letter to the conferees. The other signers were Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Braun of Indiana and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. “We remain deeply concerned that several provisions germane to the conference would substantially weaken” the U.S.’ ability “to combat malicious Chinese economic influence,” the senators said. They cited language in S-1260 that would amend the 1974 Trade Act “to create a rigid exclusion process under Section 301 which we fear would eliminate it as a tool to combat unfair and malicious Chinese trade practices.” It would create “a statutory exclusion process so broad that” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “would be incapable of implementing an effective strategy,” the senators said: “The provision requires USTR to conduct a detailed analysis of each exclusion request and, for exclusions that it intends to deny, requires USTR to demonstrate both that the tariffs do not impact the internal finances of a business unit, and do not create an anticompetitive market structure. This burden is nearly impossible for USTR to meet.” The senators urged their conferees to accept language from HR-4521 that “we believe would be a substantial improvement over current law,” including “improvements to U.S. trade remedy laws which would help domestic manufacturers compete against unfair trade practices,” including the Chinese government-subsidized Belt and Road Initiative.
Wireless Infrastructure Association names Executive Vice President Tim House interim president-CEO, following Jonathan Adelstein’s departure (see 2206020018) and 2203020059) … BIA Advisory Services announces retirement of Senior Vice President-Chief Economist Mark Fratrik June 30; Vice President-Forecasting and Analysis Nicole Ovadia, who recently came aboard from the New York State Broadcasters Association, will lead forecast team and Fratrik continues as strategic adviser and analyst.