International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Digital Trade

54 posts

The Future of U.S. Big Tech and Social Media (and a Quick Thought on Manufacturing)

As the saying goes, it's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future, but in a piece I wrote for the Baker Institute, I argue that the social media landscape is going to become smaller and more global, with U.S. big tech control declining. Is this just

Free Speech and Trade Policy

In my last post, I briefly mentioned this point about free speech from Trump's recent memo on "Defending American Companies and Innovators From Overseas Extortion and Unfair Fines and Penalties": The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative shall

The Trump Administration's New Push on Foreign Digital Taxes and Regulations

I have done a number of posts over the years on what U.S. trade officials mean when they talk about foreign digital taxes and regulations "discriminating" against U.S. companies. Are they talking about the intent of the measure or just its effect? On the latter, is

Will Trump's Early Tariffs Be Used To Fight Digital Regulatory Barriers?

CNN reports that some of Trump's early tariffs might be used to fight foreign digital regulations: The campaign has commissioned its own studies on the economic impact of these tariffs, with levies not far below the levels Trump has suggested, according to people familiar with the effort. Some

Do Foreign Digital Regulations "Discriminate" against U.S. Firms? The Case of Korea

Just about everybody agrees that "non-discrimination" is a core principle of the trading system, but what exactly do we mean by it? What is the role of intent and effect? Governments who feel like their companies are being hurt by a foreign regulation often focus on the effect,

The EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement: Experimentation with Data Flows Obligations and Exceptions Continues

Over the past couple years, I've been looking at how digital trade agreements set out data flows obligations and exceptions. I've got a new one to examine, as the EU has published a pre-legal scrub version of its digital trade agreement with Singapore, building on their

Katherine Tai on Digital Trade Rules

Here's something U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai said, at an Atlantic Council event yesterday, about pulling back on the formulation of international digital trade rules: Isn't it time for us to hit pause on this, come back, reconnect with all of the other policy silos,

Still Puzzling over Privacy Exceptions in Digital Trade Chapters/Agreements

There seems to be a lot of experimentation going on these days with exceptions for the protection of personal data/privacy in digital trade agreements/chapters. I've talked about the some of these exceptions in prior posts, but to be honest I think I missed some nuances as

Digital Trade Fights: The Case of Korea

In recent years, the U.S. has expressed concerns about digital trade regulation in a number of other countries, with the focus tending to be on the the EU due to its large market and active regulatory efforts (although it sounds like USTR and the European Commission are getting along

Data Flows Obligations and Exceptions in the EU - New Zealand FTA

There's a new FTA digital chapter to analyze, with the EU-New Zealand FTA coming into force soon. Let's take a look at the data flows provisions, with the EU-Japan text in the back of our minds as a comparison. The EU-NZ digital trade chapter is here.