WASHINGTON – Today, the global tech trade association ITI outlined a list of priorities to inform the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) discussions in Working Group 10: Global Trade Challenges. The priorities underscore the Working Group’s role in demonstrating the importance of open digital markets to innovation, competition, and shared democratic values.

“ITI appreciates the focus of the TTC on addressing and avoiding new and unnecessary barriers to trade in technology products and services as well as shared, global trade challenges through [Working Group 10],” ITI wrote in its submission. “Given its objective of promoting common core values including rule of law, non-discrimination, and regulatory transparency, industry believes it is imperative that the United States and the European Union define and model approaches for countering problematic policies being advanced by many governments – both democratic and authoritarian – that restrict the movement of information, goods, and services under the guise of data protection, data sovereignty, cybersecurity, government access to data, or industrial policy.”

ITI outlines the following priorities for Working Group 10’s discussions:

  • Establish bilateral commitments based on core principles, including with respect to existing and proposed regulations, to avoid discrimination on the basis of geography or economic sector; ensure that security and competitiveness objectives are taken into consideration; provide appropriate opportunities for regulatory dialogue; and promote compatible, balanced approaches based on rigorous, objective criteria to address emerging policy challenges.

  • Holistically address technical barriers to trade in technology goods and services, including by establishing a commitment to base regulatory or procurement requirements on international, industry-driven, voluntary technical standards. Doing so will send a clear message to third countries pursuing the development of and reliance on country-unique standards, which create the risk of discrimination, non-tariff barriers to trade, and unnecessary regulatory divergence and incompatibility.

  • Prioritize non-discriminatory, proportionate, risk-based approaches to cybersecurity based on international standards. Specifically, we encourage policymakers to address industry concerns with France’s SecNumCloud initiative and its possible replication at the European level through the implementation of the European Cybersecurity Cloud Certification Scheme (EUCS).

  • Establish a shared position on strong trade policy disciplines that address state-owned enterprises and forced technology transfer and prohibit data localization and restrictions on cross-border data flows, and develop a strategy for promoting the international adoption of updated disciplines related to unfair trade practices, including through multilateral engagement.

  • In keeping with Pittsburgh commitments to consult and coordinate on the use of domestic measures to ensure that trade policy supports market-based economies and the rule of law, pursue engagement to mitigate collateral consequences for either economy arising from discrete domestic measures.

  • Collaborate to confront systemic contraventions of World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations, including multiple countries’ imposition of tariffs on information and communications technology (ICT) products, in violation of Information Technology Agreement (ITA) commitments, and non-notification and/or advancement of technical regulations impacting technology where less trade-restrictive means are available.

Read the full submission here.

ITI’s priorities are another element of its ongoing, comprehensive engagement with the TTC, building on ITI’s representation of the global technology industry during the forum’s inaugural meeting in Pittsburgh in September 2021, and its recommendations in January 2021 and July 2021. Last month, ITI offered recommendations to the U.S. government as it seeks to facilitate effective and practical U.S. and EU export controls cooperation under the TTC.

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