Inside US Trade reports the following discussion of restrictions on TikTok and WeChat at a WTO Council for Trade in Services meeting last week:
The U.S. violated World Trade Organization rules with its recently imposed restrictions on Chinese-owned social media platforms TikTok and WeChat, China argued on Friday in Geneva.
China took issue with restrictions imposed by the U.S. as well as separate moves made by India. The measures “are clearly inconsistent with WTO rules,” China insisted, according to a Geneva-based trade official. They “restrict cross-border trading services and violate the basic principles and objectives of the multilateral trading system,” China added.
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... China, according to the trade official, argued in Geneva that the U.S. actions violate its commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The two apps provide services covered under GATS obligations, China insisted, pointing to advertising services, computer-related services, telecommunications, audio-video services, entertainment services and others.
The U.S. measures are not based on objective and transparent criteria and are more burdensome than necessary, China said -- in both cases, in violation of GATS. It also noted that the U.S. had not yet notified the measures to the council, as required.
The U.S. responded that the measures were needed to protect its national security, the official said. The U.S. conducted a thorough review, it added, and the apps were determined to pose specific national security risks. While the U.S. did not cite the national security exemption to WTO rules, it has not been shy about doing so in addressing other measures, including Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as other restrictions aimed at China.
If national security can be cited under the GATS for this kind of measure, then presumably national security can also be cited under recent digital trade chapters/agreements, such as CPTPP, USMCA, or the U.S.-Japan digital trade agreement. These provisions have been touted as offering a big boost to economic growth because of the "certainty" they provide. But if national security can be invoked so easily to protect data from flowing freely, how much impact will these agreements have on domestic regulation of data flows, and how much certainty will they actually provide?
