As US Trade Representative Katharine Tai outlined the USTR’s 2023 trade agenda and spoke to its goals on Capitol Hill, BSA | The Software Alliance and the Global Data Alliance laid out a series of key questions to help the Administration bring greater focus to its digital trade goals.
BSA and Global Data Alliance (GDA) – representing 75+ companies supporting millions of US workers across all sectors of the economy – urged the Biden administration to recognize the essential role that data transfers play in protecting US exports and jobs, and address the dramatic uptick in policies that undermine responsible and trusted data transfers.
To advance a jobs-centric digital trade agenda that will benefit American workers, employers, and technology leadership, we ask the USTR and other agencies to rigorously examine the following questions:
How will the US trade agenda protect export-driven jobs?
Why it matters: It is critical to protect American jobs by stopping trading partners from impeding US digitally enabled exports. US exports of digital services exceed $500 billion, and US exports of aircraft, automobiles, machinery, and other increasingly connected devices also exceed $500 billion, for a total of over $1 trillion in digitally enabled exports made by American workers. However, many US trading partners are adopting digital restrictions, modeled on Chinese laws, that hurt American workers and impede foreign market access for US exports.
Will the US trade agenda counter misinformation about data localization?
Why it matters: Some advocates take the mistaken view that data localization is good for American workers. That is wrong. If foreign governments force US companies to localize data processing, manufacturing, and service operations overseas, American workers can’t serve those markets from the United States, making it harder for American workers to keep their jobs.
How can the US trade agenda better protect US manufacturing and service jobs that depend on cross-border data?
Why it matters: Cross-border data restrictions threaten US manufacturing jobs in part because of their impact on exports of US-made aircraft, automobiles, machinery, and other connected products. Restricting or blocking the cross-border digital functionality of these products frustrates US-based operation and support for these products. Cross-border data restrictions that disrupt these specialized production ecosystems threaten workers across the American value chain – from R&D and product design to manufacturing to service and sales.
Similarly, cross-border data restrictions threaten US service jobs because they impede foreign access to services produced by US workers and delivered over digital networks. For example, jobs in the US film and music industries are jeopardized by other countries’ imposition of cross-border data restrictions on US-made content. Other export-driven services sectors include education and health, in which US-based teachers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals offer remote learning and remote healthcare services to populations in need around the world, especially in developing countries. Allowing other countries to impose cross-border data restrictions puts US jobs at risk in these and other sectors.
Next Steps
The questions by BSA and the GDA highlight the importance of maintaining robust cross-border data policies, in line with prior US agreements such as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the US-Japan Digital Trade Agreement, to support American workers and employers. More specifically, BSA and the GDA propose that the Administration take a two-pronged approach:
- Advance robust cross-border data provisions that favor the seamless and responsible international movement of data such as the GDA’s Model International Rules on Cross-Border Access to Information.
- Pursue robust digital trust provisions that advance priorities relating to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, law enforcement access to data, privacy, source code integrity, and standards-setting. For another model, please see BSA’s Model International Rules on Digital Trust.