[CTC] Groups Praise USTR Tai for Defending Privacy, Workers & Civil Rights in “Digital Trade” Negotiations

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Please retweet here <https://x.com/citizenstrade/status/1753412101241004490?s=20>

For Immediate Release
Contact: Arthur Stamoulis, (202) 494-8826 or media at citizenstrade.org <mailto:media at citizenstrade.org> 

Groups Praise USTR Tai for Defending Privacy, Workers & Civil Rights in “Digital Trade” Negotiations

Washington, D.C. — Civil society groups across a range of sectors sent a letter to President Biden <https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DigitalTradeThankYouLetter_020224.pdf> today praising U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai for withdrawing U.S. support for Trump-era “digital trade” proposals that would have undermined privacy, worker rights and AI accountability.  

“Good-paying jobs, civil rights and personal privacy are all at stake in the so-called ‘digital trade’ debate.  We deeply appreciate President Biden and Ambassador Tai standing firm in support of a worker-centered trade agenda that preserves space for needed public interest policies,” said Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign.

“As policymakers start paying more and more attention to the oversized role Big Tech plays in our society, the industry is attempting to use trade agreements as a backdoor means of restricting future consumer privacy, AI accountability and anti-monopoly policies here in the U.S. and around the world,” said Ed Mierzwinski, senior director of U.S. PIRG. “Consumer advocates join the many voices thanking Ambassador Tai for fending off Big Tech’s ‘digital trade’ sneak attack on sound public interest policies.”

The letter’s 41 organizational signers include: Accountable Tech, AI Now Institute, Citizens Trade Campaign, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Consumer Federation of America, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Family Farm Coalition, National Organization for Women, Public Citizen, Rethink Trade, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Tech Oversight Project, Trade Justice Education Fund, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, U.S. PIRG and others.

The groups together commended USTR Tai for “leading the update of 'digital trade' rules to provide the policy space necessary for our nation to enact urgently needed policies on Big Tech competition, gig worker rights, online consumer privacy and data security protections, and AI accountability measures.”  

A PDF of today’s letter is available at: https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DigitalTradeThankYouLetter_020224.pdf <https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DigitalTradeThankYouLetter_020224.pdf>

Earlier this week, more than 50 consumer and digital rights organizations in other countries wrote to their governments <https://dtalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/JSI-Civil-Society-Letter-2024.pdf> expressing support for the Biden administration’s decision and urging their governments to follow suit.  

###

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC  20500

February 2, 2024

Dear President Biden,

We thank you for your commitment to move our nation forward to a new trade policy that benefits most Americans, and appreciate administration efforts to ensure that trade policies are redesigned to support, not undermine, important policy goals. Specifically, we write to commend U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Katherine Tai for leading the update of “digital trade” rules to provide the policy space necessary for our nation to enact urgently needed policies on Big Tech competition, gig worker rights, online consumer privacy and data security protections, and AI accountability measures.

USTR’s recent action to withdraw U.S. support for the four extreme “digital trade” provisions that the previous administration proposed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an important first step to ensuring that Big Tech interests cannot commandeer trade negotiations to undermine the important platform accountability policies being developed by Congress and your administration. The provisions from which USTR withdrew U.S. support do not appear in most other countries’ agreements nor in most U.S. free trade agreements that have had E-Commerce chapters over the past two decades.

These harmful, but now thankfully withdrawn, provisions include:

·      Two provisions that guarantee tech firms nearly absolute control of our personal data. They ban government policies to protect our privacy and ensure data security, such as proposals to prevent Americans’ data going to bad actors overseas. Other WTO members support a more balanced version of “Data Flows” and “Location of Computing Facilities” rules that preserves governments’ rights to regulate;


·      A provision that provides tech firms special secrecy guarantees that would thwart government review of algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to curb racial discrimination, gender discrimination, labor violations, and more, while also undermining the “Right to Repair” your administration has acknowledged as vital. The WTO already requires countries to provide trade secrets protection for business-confidential information. This “Source Code” rule would forbid meaningful government oversight altogether. Our trade agreements should not provide special secrecy rights to digital firms to evade government oversight; and


·      A provision that undermines antitrust and competition policy and enforcement of labor, health, or other laws in the digital sphere that may affect larger firms more. This rule twists a trade principle called non-discrimination to make facially neutral laws that may have a disparate impact on foreign firms an illegal trade barrier.

We are eager to work with your administration to create new digital trade rules that promote worker rights, consumer privacy, civil rights, and data security goals. We know that good rules for the global economy allow governments to retain policy space to regulate, while in the digital sphere also promoting data flows and disciplining actual discrimination.

Even if Big Tech lobbyists may be upset that their efforts to quietly preempt online privacy and antitrust policies, gig worker protections and AI oversight policies are derailed, most Americans will be thrilled to learn that your administration stood up for them. We stand by you on this.

Sincerely,

Citizens Trade Campaign
Accountable Tech
AI Now Institute
American Economic Liberties Project
American Family Voices
American Friends Service Committee
Campaign for America's Future
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Economic Justice
Coalition of Labor Union Women 
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
Consumer Federation of America
Defending Rights & Dissent
Demand Progress Education Fund
Government Information Watch
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Justice Is Global
Kapor Center
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Media Alliance 
National Association of Consumer Advocates
National Family Farm Coalition
National Organization for Women
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice 
Open MIC
Pax Christi USA
Pride at Work
Progressive Democrats of America
Public Citizen
Rethink Trade
Revolving Door Project
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Social Security Works
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
The Tech Oversight Project
The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
Trade Justice Education Fund
Transport Workers Union of America
U.S. PIRG
United Steelworkers





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20240202/0589b263/attachment.htm>