Industry Members Suggest Ways Congress Can Boost Data Flows Through Trade
Congress could help ensure optimal growth in already-booming digital data and trade flows by pushing to raise de minimis levels worldwide and to create a chief digital trade negotiator position within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, industry officials…
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told House lawmakers Wednesday. During a House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing on digital trade, Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman said he hopes the committee continues to work with the internet community to chart more “inclusive” trade agreements through actions such as creation of a digital negotiator position within USTR “to better reflect the realities of today’s digital internet economy.” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson cited a McKinsey Global Institute study saying the $2.8 trillion value of international data flows in 2015 exceeded the value of global merchandise trade for the first time. Customs reauthorization legislation signed into law earlier this year raised the U.S. de minimis level -- the level below which imports are exempted from duty and paperwork -- from $200 to $800, and has helped U.S. small businesses accept returns from customers who bought shipments through e-commerce, PayPal Head-Global Public Policy Usman Ahmed said. More can be done, Ahmed said. “Through free trade agreements, addressing this issue of de minimis will be really impactful for small businesses, because they’re often dealing in low denomination of items that can be benefited by raising high de minimises around the world.” Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., agreed free-trade agreement policies can lower barriers to global data flows, but acknowledged that future deals must improve upon previous ones that spurred several prohibitive data flow regulations. The Trans-Pacific Partnership “holds great promise” in dismantling these barriers, Reichert said, through eliminating tariffs on digital goods, and by including provisions that “encourage paperless trading,” prohibit data localization measures for all 12 TPP members, and require recognition of electronic signatures. “Resolving this issue and other outstanding issues, as well as developing implementation plans to assure that TPP will be fully implemented and enforced, is essential to getting Congressional support for TPP,” he said.