USTR Announces Digital Trade Working Group

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is creating a Digital Trade Working Group to target digital trade barriers and promote policies to advance digital trade efforts worldwide, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said. Deputy USTR Robert Holleyman will head the group, which includes USTR experts in e-commerce, telecom, services, intellectual property, innovation and industrial competitiveness, USTR said. “The Digital Trade Working Group is an important resource to help the United States maintain its 'digital trade surplus,' and allow companies and workers in every sector of the U.S. economy to use the Internet to deliver innovative, American-made products and services abroad,” Froman said. The group will focus on barriers to cloud computing, platform services and digital products trade, and will coordinate the negotiation and implementation of digital trade provisions in various bilateral and multilateral agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the Trade in Services Agreement, USTR said. Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman called for lawmakers to work with industry and USTR to create a chief digital trade negotiator position within USTR last week during a House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing (see 1607130066).