Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell throughout the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee listening to titled The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, in Hart Building on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
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If the tech business will get its manner in commerce negotiations over an Indo-Pacific framework, U.S. regulators could also be restricted in how they’ll regulate a few of the nation’s largest firms, a bunch of Democratic lawmakers warned in a letter to Biden administration officers.
Tech and business commerce teams have advocated for brand new worldwide knowledge guidelines that lawmakers argue may permit private data to be despatched wherever, as an alternative of locked securely within the U.S.
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Rules that the business is advocating to incorporate within the commerce settlement “would tie Congress’s and regulators’ hands and conflict with President Biden’s whole-of-government effort to promote competition,” they wrote within the Friday letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
It’s not the primary time Democrats have raised considerations about tech provisions being included in commerce agreements. In 2019, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pushed to maintain language that echoes tech’s authorized legal responsibility defend Section 230 out of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
This newest letter is signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. The group urged Tai and Raimondo “not to put up for negotiation or discussion any digital trade text that conflicts” with the agenda set by the whole-of-government effort.
“Big Tech wants to include an overly broad provision that would help large tech firms evade competition policies by claiming that such policies subject these firms to ‘illegal trade discrimination,'” the Democrats wrote. “This language would provide a basis for Big Tech firms, as well as foreign governments, to attack tech policies as ‘illegal trade barriers’ simply because they may disproportionately impact ‘digital products’ of dominant companies that happen to be headquartered in the U.S.”
The language may affect tech regulation each at dwelling and overseas, the lawmakers warned.
“Inclusion of such provisions could undermine efforts by U.S. policymakers to pass new legislation and antitrust enforcers to crack down on anti-competitive conduct, including price fixing and self-dealing, by the largest tech companies,” they wrote. “Tech companies could also weaponize these digital trade rules to undermine similar efforts by our trading partners.”
The letter cited a U.S. Chamber of Commerce weblog submit a couple of commerce group coalition observe advocating for robust digital commerce provisions within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). That letter, addressed to Tai and Raimondo and signed by tech-backed teams just like the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), stated “securing high-standard digital trade rules in the IPEF is among the highest priorities.” The teams stated doing so would assist open American small companies to new clients and higher compete globally.
But the Democratic lawmakers raised considerations that elements of the tech want checklist for the commerce talks would additionally restrict the power to manage synthetic intelligence in addition to the switch of delicate private knowledge.
The group stated they’re particularly involved due to the quick tempo of negotiations, with a finalized framework reportedly focused for November this 12 months.
The Office of the USTR, Department of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce, CCIA and ITIC didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
“If trade agreements contain rules that allow tech companies to plead ‘illegal trade discrimination’ to avoid accountability for monopolistic and discriminatory behavior, not only will personal privacy and consumers’ trust in the Internet be threatened, but the United States’ economic and national security as well,” the lawmakers wrote.
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