[CTC] Democrats worried about digital rules in IPEF

[Arthur Stamoulis]

BY STEVEN OVERLY <mailto:soverly at politico.com>
With help from Doug Palmer, Gavin Bade and Rebecca Kern

QUICK FIX
 
— Progressive Democrats are worried that digital rules being pushed by the Biden administration in the Indo-Pacific trade talks will benefit big tech firms. They want more transparency from U.S. officials on the terms under consideration.
 
DRIVING THE DAY
PROGRESSIVES SKEPTICAL ON IPEF TALKS: Progressive Democrats raised concern Wednesday that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will contain digital provisions that unfairly benefit large technology companies and called on the Biden administration to coordinate more closely with Congress as it negotiates the 13-nation pact.

“Giant corporations have this one great trick: If it looks like regulators just might rein you in, send out your corporate lobbyists to rig a trade deal,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6c1467d6dad028d78d52125e9848465cd4a58748c99dd5ee88d9ceb94d700293cb347bd0c2648d30354d4c4305041650d61053088e5ba99e> (D-Mass.) said. “And now that the United States is trying to rein in Big Tech, finally, their lobbyists and lawyers are trying to rig the digital trade deals to undermine those new laws.”

A past example: Warren and other lawmakers pointed to language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that protects internet companies from legal liability for third-party content. A similar law has been under intense scrutiny in the U.S. but House Democrats failed to kill the provision in last-minute USMCA negotiations.

“The truth is that this Trump-era law and trade agreement that got passed is very flawed when it comes to the digital trade chapter,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6c1467d6dad028d7ce2be3a6c59cf8aa4b244b940dd26cec87344f5f6c7ca85ab80527652745318bc42fe6b5ad4fdb75ac66af7e3929c53a> (D-Ill.), who helped broker the final deal that passed Congress. “We cannot let this flawed … digital trade chapter set the stage for future trade agreements.”

Schakowsky expressed alarm that yearslong efforts on Capitol Hill to move legislation that would create new regulations in areas like artificial intelligence and data privacy “would be threatened by” IPEF if the terms of the deal are too permissive. “We are worried about what is being negotiated at this moment,” she said.

Advocates agitating: The lawmakers were teed up by Rethink Trade, a division of anti-monopoly advocacy group American Economic Liberties Project. Rethink Trade released a report Wednesday <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6c1467d6dad028d73e87815fa0b55eb0bbc37a7ecc307c67d557e29293b38747968331add8022d298d0cbf5f2c2d41f8c769da20492f929e> accusing tech companies of using the framework to undermine efforts in Congress to put checks on market concentration, data usage and artificial intelligence.

“One powerful, if stealthy, strategy Big Tech is prioritizing to derail these efforts is a form of international preemption,” the report states. “The goal is to excavate the policy space out from under Congress and the administration by locking the United States and its trade partners into international rules that forbid such digital governance initiatives.”

Transparency talk: That concern struck a chord with Rep. Mark Takano <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=6c1467d6dad028d769dcb944595cbe68d30934075f9ada6c453a1345bc62b61c0f64cdd24499fd5810e888bd07f9a0f3f757b76c73da494c> (D-Calif.), who has proposed legislation to allow more scrutiny of algorithms used as evidence in criminal proceedings. He said Wednesday that trade agreements are important in the “emerging age of renewed global great power struggles” but the Biden administration has not been forthcoming about the new trade rules it is seeking.

“We have to insist on a level of transparency and on involvement of Congress, especially when it comes to the possible preemption of some very important laws and preemption of possible legislation like mine,” Takano said. “That’s what’s at stake here, potentially. We don’t know because we’re not really understanding what’s going on in the IPEF negotiations.”


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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