Congress Chides USTR on Digital Trade

Co-Chairs of the Digital Trade Caucus, led a bipartisan letter with 38 members of Congress urging U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to reconsider her agency’s decision to abandon important bipartisan digital trade proposals at the World Trade Organization.

Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Darin LaHood (R-IL) contend the decision to walk away from key digital trade proposals runs counter to the interests of American workers and businesses, while ceding more leverage to foreign powers, like the People's Republic of China (PRC), to write the rules that will govern the global digital economy for years to come.

“We are especially concerned by the PRC’s efforts to advance a model of digital governance domestically and through its Digital Silk Road Initiative that permits censorship, surveillance, human and worker rights abuses, forced technology transfers, and data flow restrictions,” the lawmakers wrote. “The void created by this decision will harm American workers, companies, security, and innovation, while benefitting our largest competitors in the digital space. We reiterate our request for the administration to reassess its decision.”

Recently, DelBene and LaHood issued a statement opposing the Biden Administration's decision.

The full text of the letter can be found here.