Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, questions Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report to Congress, in the Hart Building on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
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If the tech industry grinds its way in trade negotiations over the Indo-Pacific framework, US regulators may be constrained in how to regulate some of the country’s largest companies, a group of Democratic lawmakers warned in a statement. letter to Biden administration officials.
Technology and business groups have called for new international databases that lawmakers argue could allow personal information to be sent anywhere, rather than safely secured in the United States.
They wrote in a letter on Friday to US Trade Representative Catherine Tay and Trade Secretary Gina Raimondo.
This is not the first time Democrats have raised concerns about including technology clauses in trade agreements. In 2019, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., pushed for language to be retained that mirrored the technology liability shield of Section 230 of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
This latest letter was signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Richard Blumenthal, Vice Chair Jan Schakowski, D-Illinois, David Cicilline, Dr. I, and Rosa DeLauro, D- being. The group urged Tai and Raimundo “not to put forward any digital trade text for negotiation or discussion” that runs counter to the agenda set by the whole government’s efforts.
“Big Tech wants to include a very broad provision that would help Big Tech evade competition policies by claiming that such policies expose them to ‘unlawful trade discrimination’,” the Democrats wrote. major corporations, as well as foreign governments, to attack technology policies as “illegal trade barriers” simply because they may disproportionately affect the “digital products” of dominant companies headquartered in the United States”
Lawmakers have warned that the language could influence technology regulation at home and abroad.
“The inclusion of such provisions could undermine efforts by US policymakers to pass new legislation and antitrust powers to suppress anti-competitive behavior, including price fixing and self-dealing, by the largest technology companies,” they wrote. “Technology companies can also weaponize these rules of digital commerce to undermine similar efforts by our trading partners.”
The letter was excerpted from the American Chamber of Commerce’s blog about a trade group coalition NB Advocating for strong provisions for digital trade in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The letter, addressed to Tai and Raimondo and signed by technology-supported groups such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), said “Securing IPEF’s high-level digital commerce rules are among the highest priorities.” Doing so, the groups said, will help open American small businesses to new customers and better compete globally.
But Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns that parts of the technology wish list of trade talks would also limit the ability to regulate artificial intelligence as well as the transmission of sensitive personal data.
The group said it was particularly concerned by the rapid pace of negotiations, with the final framework reportedly targeted for November this year.
The USTR, Department of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce, CCIA and ITIC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“If trade agreements contain rules that allow technology companies to defend ‘unfair trade discrimination’ to avoid accountability for monopolistic and discriminatory behavior, not only personal privacy and consumer trust in the Internet will be threatened, but also the economic and national security of the United States,” the lawmakers wrote.
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