Washington, D.C. – Congressman Darin LaHood (IL-16), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and Co-Chair of the Digital Trade Caucus, led a bipartisan letter with 46 colleagues to urge the Biden Administration to increase engagement with the European Union (EU) on changes to discriminatory digital trade and regulatory policies that specifically impact American businesses, which will protect America's economic and national security.
In part, the Members write:
"America’s innovation economy is essential to our competitiveness across the globe and our economic strength at home. Our leadership in the digital economy supports millions of American jobs and has the potential to create significant economic opportunities for years to come. We strongly believe that we must safeguard the success of the United States in this sector by ensuring that American companies and workers face a fair and level playing field when competing in foreign markets...
"These policies include the recently enacted Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, proposals to limit access for American cloud service providers, and threats to revive digital services taxes, among others. These policies, which almost exclusively target American companies, collectively impose sweeping new regulations, forced technology transfers, compliance costs, hefty taxes, and potentially significant penalties while giving homegrown European rivals a leg up. Some of these policies also provide opportunities for Chinese, Russian, and other foreign-owned firms to increase market share in Europe."
The EU's digital trade policies, such as the Digital Markets Act, single out American businesses and limit competition. Additionally, these policies provide a further opening for Chinese, Russian, and other foreign firms to expand their operations in Europe.
In the letter, the members also urge the Administration to work through the existing forums to cooperate on digital rules and update Congress on the recent Trade and Technology Council meeting that occurred at the end of May.
You can read the full letter HERE.
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