The Digital Trade Alliance (DTA) hosted a panel discussion at WTO Public Forum held in Geneva in September 2025. Titled “The Weaponization of trade and its effects on the digital economy” the well attended panel discussion featured Rishab Bailey, Research Director for the Digital Trade, Public Citizen, Lynn Boylan, Sinn Fein MEP, Sanya Reid Smith, Senior Legal Advisor, Third World Network, Sofia Scasserra, Transnational Institute and Abhijit Das, ex-WTO negotiator for India.
The panel discussion sought to understand how the US government’s recent push to use trade policy as a means to restrain regulation of US companies by foreign countries was likely to impact negotiation of digital trade agreements around the world, and the future of digital trade. The session grappled with the competing interests faced by a number of governments, including the desire to ensure access to US markets and the need to ensure competitive and equitable development of the digital sector. The experts sought to answer how digital trade policy might balance these multiple interests and what this might mean for the rights and interests of consumers and small businesses in the online economy.
Rishab Bailey, Research Director, Public Citizen opened the session, pointing to how the Trump administration was carrying water for Big Tech companies through the use of coercive tariffs. By forcing countries to deregulate the tech sector, the current U.S. administration was seeking to protect corporate interests at the cost of consumer and user rights. Countries therefore needed to push back against the unfair and exploitative demands by the U.S. administration, particularly as concessions to the Trump administration have led to increased threats and demands for deregulation.
Lynn Boylan, Sinn Fein MEP from Ireland and Left Group coordinator on the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, addressed the Trump administration’s attacks on key digital policies enacted by the European Union (EU) and how the EU should look to respond. Boylan argued deregulation of the tech sector would lead to disastrous results for EU citizens. The EU implemented its package of digital regulations including instruments such as the General Data Protection Regulation, AI Act and Digital Markets Act, to ensure protection of fundamental rights of EU citizens, and a fair digital marketplace. These were under threat in EU-US trade negotiations and also due to internal growth related considerations. However, deregulation was not an appropriate response and EU citizen’s rights should not be subject to negotiation.
Sanya Reid-Smith, legal advisor and senior researcher at Third World Network, addressed digital trade related negotiations in the context of the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), the Digital Protocol to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) and the WTO’s Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce. Reid-Smith pointed to how similar liberalising provisions were proliferating in a number of digital agreements under negotiation. She went on to explain the negative implications of these provisions on the developmental rights of countries, noting how these digital trade provisions pushed by Big Tech companies largely benefited producers in developed countries. Deregulation would also negatively affect consumer and citizen rights by limiting the implementation of critical laws that regulate market failures and ensure a fairer digital economy.
Sofia Scasserra, an economist with the Transnational Institute, addressed how President Trump’s push for global deregulation was being dealt with by Latin American countries. She argued that the weaponization of trade as a way to stop digital regulation was a fundamental battle over who had the right to regulate the digital space. As countries around the world increasingly looked to protect citizen rights in the digital world, and ensure the benefits of technological advancement were equitably distributed in society, the U.S. government was pushing back on behalf of Big Tech. Given the extraordinary economic and political power exercised by Big Tech, countries need to assert digital sovereignty rather than treat the digital ecosystem purely as a free marketplace. Pushing back against the narrative that regulation stifles innovation, Scasserra pointed to how deregulation merely leads to the development of more concentrated markets – leading to the private sector increasingly exercising quasi sovereign powers on a global basis. The use of trade policy to target digital regulations was a systematic threat to democracies the world over.
Abhijit Das, a trade policy expert and ex-Indian negotiator at the WTO, addressed the global strategies behind the push for deregulation by Big Tech companies. Pointing to how Big Tech companies are increasingly using trade provisions to push their agenda, Das argued that one must be wary of deregulatory provisions being included in trade negotiations such as the ones India was engaged in with the EU and the U.S. Das discussed how India’s positions in trade negotiations were likely to affect digital sovereignty and digital rights of Indian users. Pointing to various Indian initiatives to democratise the digital ecosystem – for instance the development of digital public infrastructure – Das argued that India must push back on pressure to deregulate the digital ecosystem. However, India’s recent steps, notably the provisions in the India-UK Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), represented a backsliding on various issues. For example, provisions on access to source code were more industry friendly than even the much maligned Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. While many of the liberalising provisions in the CETA were non-binding, these could eventually be converted to binding obligations in future agreements.
