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Digital Trade

60 posts

Some Digital Trade Policy Proposals for the Biden Administration on Data Flow Obligations and Exceptions

Based on a couple recent meetings I was a part of, I thought it might be helpful to put together some specific proposals for digital trade provisions related to data flow obligations and exceptions, in the context of international economic agreements. The Biden administration appears to be having some internal

The EU-Japan Approach to Data Flow Obligations and Exceptions

I've done several posts on digital trade provisions in which I set out the data flow obligations and the exceptions, and consider whether the drafters have struck a good balance in terms of promoting data flows while preserving regulatory space. A recent draft amendment to the existing EU-

The U.S. Changes Its Mind in the WTO E-Commerce Negotiations

The U.S. made headlines last week by withdrawing some proposals it had previously made on specific aspects of the WTO Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce negotiations. Many pro-trade people were upset by this decision, but for reasons I will explain below, I wasn't as bothered.

Katherine Tai on Industrial Policy, the Global Steel and Aluminum Arrangement, and EU Digital Regulation

Last week, U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai spoke at the Center for American Progress. You can watch the whole event here. As I try to do whenever I have time and she says something in the Q & A that intrigues me, I'm going to quote a

General vs. Specific Non-Discrimination Obligations and Exceptions in Digital Trade

Following up on my last post, let me go into more detail about an issue that was under the surface in that post but I didn't really get in to: I think there is some overlap between a general non-discrimination obligation, on the one hand, and a

Non-Discriminatory Treatment of Digital Trade Products in the EU-NZ FTA

Last year, I did some blog posts and a short paper that looked at the wording of the provision in digital trade chapters/agreements on "Non‐ Discriminatory Treatment of Digital Products." The basic point was that the usual language in this provision refers to "digital products,"

RCEP's Airtight Data Localization Security Exception

Security exceptions in international economic law agreements tend to be more expansive than other exceptions, but over on Twitter Geraldo Vidigal pointed out recently that the RCEP security exception for data localization measures has an element that seems to go further than usual, giving any government that invokes the exception

Digital Trade Agreements and Domestic Policy

I did a series of posts recently on digital trade issues, and I have now consolidated them all into a short Cato paper. Here's the intro: National debates over policies that affect the flow of digital information are heating up as censorship, surveillance, control over personal data, and

Are Digital Services Taxes Discriminatory? Who Should Decide?

In my last post, I talked about how USTR is continuing on with the Section 301 proceedings in several cases related to digital services taxes. In its announcement, USTR said: "In January, USTR found that the DSTs adopted by Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom were

The Biden Administration's Approach to Section 301

On Friday, USTR announced its next steps in many of the Section 301 digital services tax cases: The United States Trade Representative (USTR) today announced the next steps in its Section 301 investigations of Digital Service Taxes (DSTs) adopted or under consideration by ten U.S. trading partners. In January,