2010 Trade Policy Priorities for ITI

U.S. information-technology workers and companies now compete in a globally integrated economy where the majority of our customers, fastest growing markets and fiercest competitors are overseas.  Two-thirds of our markets and an even larger share of IT spending growth are outside our borders. The foundation of our success in international markets rests on a competitive US economy that acts as the driving force for growth and innovation around the world. 

The industry’s trade agenda is closely connected to a broader set of issues facing the US economy and central to assuring the industry’s future as a global innovation leader:  R&D and tax policy, market access and trade facilitation, immigration, energy and environment, healthcare and workforce development, and protection of intellectual property rights.  Technology and innovation are essential components in the calculus of spurring American competitiveness, job creation and global economic development. 

To this end ITI has laid out the following trade policy priorities for 2010:

Strengthen American workers’ ability to compete globally

• Promote a national economic agenda that gives high priority to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education to prepare the U.S. workforce for the global jobs of the 21^st Century.

Drive high-tech global leadership to grow American jobs and facilitate U.S. economic recovery

• Support Information Communication Technologies (ICT) related initiatives in the G20 to promote growth and jobs, especially those that spur ICT infrastructure investment and development.
• Lead high-tech industry efforts to promote innovation and use of green technologies through conclusion of an Environmental Goods and Services Agreement.
• Bolster enforcement of existing trade agreements, including seeking a successful outcome of the WTO dispute-settlement case against the European Commission for violations of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA).
• Promote pro-growth policies for the global digital economy by reducing barriers to electronically delivered services and e-commerce and ensuring the Internet remains unregulated.

Promote U.S. leadership in trade arena to ensure level playing field in global markets

• Drive regional trade initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region, backing U.S. negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and developing trade initiatives that support U.S. hosting of APEC in 2011.
• Remove outdated US export control restrictions while better targeting today’s national security threats, especially unilateral burdens placed on US encryption policies.
• Support multilateral trade through a more effective WTO and conclusion of a commercially meaningful Doha Round.
• Promote passage of pending bilateral FTAs and support for efforts to address remaining concerns.
• Pursue elimination of both tariff barriers and the growing proliferation of behind-the-border barriers to trade in goods and services, such as discriminatory technical regulations and standards that deviate from international norms. 
• Advocate conclusion of a strong and effective Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that is consistent with current US law.
• Collaborate with the U.S. government to promote the benefits of voluntary, industry-led, consensus-based standards for ICT in developing countries.

Expand opportunities in emerging and other key markets

• Engage China on wide array of trade issues facing the ICT sector, especially in regard to policies relating to indigenous innovation, information security, global standards, and technical regulations: promote respect for and enforcement of IPR (including use of legal software and actions to combat counterfeiting), opening China’s government procurement market through balanced accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, and conclusion of a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) that ensures protections for foreign goods and services providers.
• Reduce barriers to ICT trade in Brazil, India and Russia while encouraging IPR protection, eliminating foreign direct investment limitations, and promoting cybersecurity regulation consistent with global best practices.