GLOBAL
FT: The AI bubble is a bigger global economic threat than US tariffs – Alan Beattie
While it’s still relatively early days — the liberation day tariffs didn’t actually come in until August and other sectoral duties are on the way — Trump’s interventions have so far proved to be an annoyance rather than a genuine threat to trade. The financial market and economic constraints that have moderated them will continue.
The global economy can survive interruptions to bilateral US-China goods trade. A collapse in AI, the sector of the US economy in which investors and Trump himself have placed so much faith, will be a harder shock to endure.
ASIA
WhiteHouse: Agreement between the United States of American and Malaysia on Reciprocal Trade
The Governments of the US and Malaysia have signed an extremely one-sided trade deal, that includes a host of digital trade provisions pushed by Big Tech. In exchange, Malaysia is offered 20% tariffs.
Malaysia agrees not to impose digital services taxes, refrain from adopting regulatory measures that discriminate against U.S. digital products and services, consult with the U.S. before entering into any digital trade agreements with third parties, require access to source code as a condition for market access, and impose duties on electronic transmissions. Malaysia has also agreed to remove proposals for tech companies to contribute to its USO fund, ensure intermediaries are regulated in a transparent, impartial, and non-discriminatory manner, and in accordance with the principles of due process, and to repeal directives on local DNS resolution.
WhiteHouse: Agreement between the United States of American and Cambodia on Reciprocal Trade
The Governments of the US and Cambodia have signed an extremely one-sided trade deal, that includes a host of digital trade provisions pushed by Big Tech.
Cambodia agrees not to impose digital services taxes, refrain from adopting regulatory measures that discriminate against U.S. digital products and services, consult with the U.S. before entering into any digital trade agreements with third parties, require access to source code as a condition for market access, and impose duties on electronic transmissions.
TWN: Civil Society Letter to ASEAN Member States on the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) Negotiations
We, the undersigned digital policy groups, consumer rights organizations, civil society networks, labor organizations, and public interest advocates from ASEAN Member States (AMS), write to express our deep concern and disappointment at the lack of public participation, transparency, and open government processes in the ongoing negotiations of the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA).
Citizens across ASEAN have a right to know what is being negotiated on their behalf. Domestic legislative processes within AMS allow for public scrutiny and parliamentary oversight. There is no justification for treating DEFA, which may directly constrain or preempt national regulations, with less openness than domestic lawmaking. ASEAN Member States must remain publicly accountable for the negotiating positions they take on behalf of their citizens. Shielding those positions from public scrutiny undermines ASEAN’s stated commitment to a “people-oriented, people-centered ASEAN” and principles of open, accountable governance.
CAP: Shattered Trust: How the Trump Administration’s Actions Threaten the U.S.-India Partnership – Damian Murphy
For decades, the United States and India have built a steadily deepening partnership, forged by shared strategic interests, economic ties, and growing defense cooperation. From nuclear agreements to joint military exercises and technological collaboration, the two democracies have carefully nurtured trust that took nearly 30 years to cultivate.
However, recent actions by the Trump administration have jeopardized this hard-earned trust—not through regular policy disagreements or normal diplomatic friction, but by actions and rhetoric that cut deeper than the usual strains in the U.S.-India relationship.
EconomicTimes: India, US agree not to seek info on source code – Kiran Rathee
Selling of products and services by US companies in India is likely to get easier with the two countries renegotiating a trade deal, with focus on facilitating digital trade.
The two countries have agreed not to demand information concerning source code or other proprietary knowledge, and access to a particular technology, production process, etc, as a precondition for doing business in India, officials aware of the details told ET.
“The US and India will further facilitate digital trade by refraining from adopting or maintaining measures that discriminate against digital services or products of the other party,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
GovtofPhillippines: Philippines Leads World Trade Organization’s Push for InterOperable Digital Payments and Lower Remittance Costs
The Philippine Permanent Mission to the World Trade Organization reaffirmed the country’s leadership in advancing inclusive and interoperable financial systems at the multilateral level, following the successful thematic session of the WTO Committee on Trade in Financial Services on “Facilitating Digital Payment Systems and Remittance Services,” held from 29-30 September 2025 in Geneva.
During the thematic seminar and CTFS meeting, the Philippines emphasized that trade policy can play a distinct and constructive role in supporting these developments through the principles of open access, fair treatment, and transparency. The Mission reaffirmed that ensuring non-discriminatory access to payment systems, recognizing new financial service providers, and promoting secure and predictable data transfer frameworks are essential elements of a competitive and inclusive digital economy.
Looking ahead, the Mission will continue to work closely with WTO Members and other international organizations to advance a development oriented agenda on digital payments, interoperability, and financial inclusion, consistent with the Philippines’ goals under its ASEAN Chairship in 2026.
Reuters: China consumers file antitrust complaint against Apple over app store practices
A group of 55 Chinese iPhone and iPad users filed a complaint with China’s market regulator on Monday, a lawyer representing the group said, alleging that Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab abuses its market dominance by restricting app distribution and payments to its own platforms while charging high commissions.
The complaint to China’s State Administration for Market Regulation scrutinises Apple at a time when trade tensions between Beijing and Washington have been intensifying, with both governments deploying tariffs and technology restrictions as policy tools.
The complainants, led by lawyer Wang Qiongfei, argue that Apple maintains a monopoly over iOS app distribution in China while permitting alternative payment methods and app stores in other markets following regulatory pressure from the European Union and United States.
KEI: Digital Technology Traps for South Korea’s Trade Policy – Peter Cowhey
Military historians often apply a superlative phrase to describe famous generals, stating that they are able to “snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.” This line of thought can be inverted as an apt description of policy stumbles—“we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.” The South Korean government may risk this fate by following its skillful trade negotiation with the United States with a needless bruising fight over digital technology policy.
RestofWorld: Google vs. Perplexity fight plays out in India as AI battle intensifies – Javaid Iqbal Sofi
India is among the biggest markets for AI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. With Google, Perplexity, and OpenAI, India may be aiming to counter the popularity of China’s DeepSeek in the country. While the free plans have drawn millions of users, it is uncertain if people will pay for the services when the offers end.
These moves, in the world’s most populous country, are just the most recent in the pitched battle for a piece of the fast-growing market for AI-powered search. Following the launch of ChatGPT and its quick adoption worldwide, big tech firms including Meta, Microsoft, and Google have scrambled to push their own alternatives, even as challengers such as Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Dia have entered the fray to redefine search with generative AI. OpenAI is also preparing to launch its own browser.
With China out of bounds for most Silicon Valley firms, India is both a “high-pressure testing ground” and a key source of training data sets, Payal Arora, a professor of inclusive AI cultures at Utrecht University, told Rest of World.
RestofWorld: Why China has a tech manufacturing advantage over the U.S. – Viola Zhou
China’s prowess in engineering and manufacturing is now at the center of the U.S.–China rivalry in artificial intelligence. Despite Washington’s efforts to block China from advancing in AI, the country has continued to make progress in developing chips and training state-of-the-art large language models.
Dan Wang moved to Canada at age seven from Yunnan in southwestern China. A former tech analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, his stints in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai allowed him to closely observe China’s trajectory. In his new book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, Wang compares the country’s “engineering” state, which favors large-scale manufacturing, with America’s “lawyerly” society, which he believes hinders new construction and development.
Now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Wang spoke to Rest of World about the significance of the push for “made in America,” the chip war between China and the U.S., and America’s diminishing ability to attract top tech talent.
AFRICA
IndependentUganda: Barriers endure in African digital trade, say WTO, World Bank
The results of a digital trade initiative in Africa show the continent has made progress, but barriers to paperless trade persist, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank.
The organisations have carried out digital trade reviews for six countries – Rwanda, Kenya, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria – to identify potential next steps for policy.
Yet while most of these countries now have “substantial frameworks in place”, the reviews found that the implementation and adoption of paperless trade remain challenging “due to a lack of secondary legislation or overly strict frameworks”.
EUROPE
TechPolicyPress: How Europe Can Expand Digital Trade to Challenge Big Tech’s Anti-Regulatory Push
A defining feature of United States President Donald Trump’s foreign policy in his second term has been his weaponization of trade policy and extortion of other countries to get them to rig the global economy in favor of US companies. His demands extend far beyond getting countries to remove tariffs on US exports. He has increasingly targeted national regulations that his administration sees as harming US companies, and by extension, the US itself. In particular, Trump has attacked Europe’s tech policies—from its proposed digital service taxes to its signature digital market regulations—which prevent the Big Tech platforms from having the same free rein in the European digital economy as they do in the US.
Nevertheless, as unprecedented as Trump’s actions are in their audacity, many of his tactics are simply an amplified version of ones that tech companies have long been seeding through US trade policy. Defenders of a rules-based international order in Europe and elsewhere must therefore recognize that Big Tech’s anti-regulatory agenda will outlast the Trump Administration so long as trade policy remains a mechanism through which the US and others can restrict governments’ tech policy choices.
Politico: EU leaders paper over splits on US tech reliance – By Mathieu Pollet, Émile Marzolf, Laura Hülsemann and Frida Preuß
When EU leaders back a “sovereign digital transition” at a summit in Brussels this Thursday, their words will mask a rift between France and Germany over how to deal with America’s overwhelming dominance in technology.
The bloc’s founding members have long taken differing approaches to how far the continent should seek to go in detoxing from U.S. giants. In Paris, sovereignty is about backing local champions and breaking reliance on U.S. Big Tech. In Berlin the focus is on staying open and protecting Europe without severing ties with a major German trading partner.
The EU leaders’ statement is a typical fudge — it cites the need for Europe to “reinforce its sovereignty” while maintaining “close collaboration with trusted partner countries,” according to a near-final draft obtained by POLITICO ahead of the gathering.
OpenMarketsInstitute: New Policy Brief Warns: U.S. “Free Speech” Attacks Threaten Europe’s Sovereignty and Democracy
A new policy brief released today by the Open Markets Institute and the Center for Journalism & Liberty warns that Europe’s democracy, rule of law, and freedom of expression face growing danger from U.S. tech monopolies — and from a coordinated campaign by the U.S. government to undermine Europe’s digital sovereignty under the guise of “defending free speech.”
The brief argues that dominant U.S. platforms such as Google, Meta and X wield unprecedented power to manipulate political discourse, censor individuals and organizations, and shape the flow of information across Europe, the United States and beyond. At the same time, and in coordination with these corporations, the current U.S. administration has launched an “unprecedented assault” on Europe’s right to regulate these corporations in the public interest.
Politico: French lawmakers vote to hike tax on American tech giants – Mathieu Pollet and Klara Durand
French lawmakers have voted in favor of a fivefold increase on the taxation of tech giants in France amid ongoing negotiations on the country’s 2026 budget.
The amendment that passed the National Assembly’s finance committee on Wednesday would raise the digital services tax on tech giants from 3 percent to 15 percent.
It would also lift the global revenue threshold from €750 million to €2 billion — shielding smaller national players from the scope of the tax, according to the proposal put forward by Jean-René Cazeneuve, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s party.
Reuters: Exclusive: Apple hit with EU antitrust complaint over App Store policies – Foo Yun Chee
Apple was hit with a complaint to EU antitrust regulators by two civil rights groups on Wednesday over the terms and conditions of its App Store and devices for allegedly breaching landmark rules aimed at reining in Big Tech.
The joint complaint by Article 19 and Germany’s Society for Civil Rights to the European Commission could pose yet another headache for Apple, which was fined 500 million euros ($583 million) in April for violating the Digital Markets Act.
Apple, which has previously said its rules ensure marketplaces meet specific minimum requirements to protect users and developers, dismissed the claims as false and put the blame on the Commission.
Reuters: Dutch seizure of Nexperia followed US pressure over Chinese CEO – Toby Sterling
A Dutch seizure of Chinese-owned computer chip maker Nexperia came after rising U.S. pressure on the company, a court ruling released on Tuesday showed, underscoring how the firm has been caught in the crossfire between Washington and Beijing.
Nexperia is caught between the U.S. and China, with U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheting up pressure on tech as part of a broader trade war in which he threatened 100% tariffs on China’s exports last week. Beijing has announced curbs on exports of rare earths.
WashingtonPost: In Europe, hate speech isn’t free speech. Some in D.C. hate that – Karla Adam and Kate Brady
President Donald Trump claimed that Europeans are losing their “wonderful right of freedom of speech.” Elon Musk told a far-right rally in London that Britons are “scared to exercise their free speech.” And Vice President JD Vance warned that U.S. troops stationed in Germany could be jailed for a “mean tweet.”
But behind Washington’s finger-pointing lies a difficult debate that is roiling many European countries: Have governments gone too far in curbing free expression when it comes to hate speech and intentional misinformation — including political propaganda and election meddling by foreign adversaries — or have they built more responsible tools to safeguard democracy?
ForbrukerRadet: Grindr loses appeal – Andreas Framnes
Today it was announced that the appeal by dating app Grindr’s was unsuccessful, and the administrative fine of 65 million NOK (ca €5.5 million) is upheld. The Norwegian Consumer Council now expects the industry to change its practices to comply with the law.
As Grindr shared its users’ personal data for advertising purposes, the Court concluded that the company’s claim that it “we do not sell your personal user information to third parties for advertising purposes” is clearly misleading.
NORTH AMERICA
RethinkTrade: As the Cases Against Broad Trump Tariff Authority Head to the Supreme Court, What’s at Stake and at Issue
The U.S. Supreme Court set a very speedy schedule to hear a case that combines several different challenges of President Trump’s authority to impose his broadest tariffs. The high court will decide whether the April 2 “Reciprocal Tariffs” that apply to most countries in the world at rates ranging from 10 to 50% and the “Trafficking Tariffs” that apply to China (30%) and to non-U.S.-MexicoCanada-Agreement-compliant goods from Canada (35%) and Mexico (25%) can continue. The court rescheduled other cases to hear oral arguments for this case on November 5. The core legal issues are whether the statute on which Trump relied, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), provides authority to impose these tariffs and, if it does, whether the delegation of Congress’ constitutional tariff authority is constitutionally permissible. The case also raises major policy and political questions: A ruling that IEEPA provides presidents broad, unbound tariff authority would dramatically expand presidential power overall, demolishing one of the starkest checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution in a way that would broadly undermine democratic accountability in the U.S. governance system. It also would empower a president operating without care or good intentions to do significant economic damage domestically and internationally.
CommonDreams: Big Tech’s Most Effective Lobbyist, Jim Jordan, Is Temporarily Constrained – Sumit Sharma
A silver lining of the current government shutdown is that Rep. Jim Jordan can no longer use his position as chair of the House Judiciary Committee to waste taxpayer dollars lobbying for the most powerful technology corporations.
The most recent example of this waste was a nearly five-hour hearing in which Rep. Jordan (R-Ohio) gave the United Kingdom’s Nigel Farage a platform on Capitol Hill to attack Britain’s efforts to protect children online and the European Union’s efforts to address the dominance of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft in European digital markets. Also discussed were European efforts to set ground rules for digital information ecosystems. The hearing produced fireworks and sound bites about “authoritarian” speech policing. It was a performative act dressed up as oversight.
TheNation: So Long as Oligarchs Control the Public Square, There Will Be Corruption – Zephyr Teachout
There’s a corrupt schemer born every minute, and US history is filled with presidents who have pressured businesses to serve their political agendas. The fact that Donald Trump is epically brazen and selfish only underscores the need for real anti-corruption measures. We cannot just rely on hope, shame, or anger to curtail such abuses; the protections must be structural.
The Goliaths of Big Tech, who just a few years ago were heralded for promising to stand up to Trump, are now gushing over his leadership, as the president grants them tariff exceptions and carries their agenda into global negotiations with the European Union. That isn’t a result of any character flaws in Mark Zuckerberg; that’s the result of a structural flaw in our system.
The bad news is that this concentration is extreme. The good news is that it can be addressed—by electing a Congress that’s prepared to repeal the 1996 Telecom Act and revive laws that allow for democratic, decentralized media ownership, and more immediately, by getting state attorneys general to block media mergers and by mobilizing opposition to Big Tech data centers.
TechDirt: Apple Decides ICE Agents Are A Protected Class, Because Apparently Government Accountability Is Now “Hate Speech” – Mike Masnick
Just when you think corporate content moderation can’t get any more absurd, Apple has managed to redefine “protected class” in a way that would make Orwell proud. According to internal correspondence obtained by Migrant Insider, Apple has removed the DeICER app—which allowed users to log sightings of ICE enforcement activity—by invoking guidelines normally reserved for protecting marginalized communities from hate speech.
Apple justified this by treating federal immigration agents as a protected class equivalent to groups protected from discrimination based on “religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin.”
Yahoo: Canada agrees to ratify Britain’s accession to major trans-Pacific trade pact – Nina Lloyd
Canada has agreed to ratify Britain’s accession to a major trans-Pacific trade pact as Sir Keir Starmer and Mark Carney sought to revive talks on a stalled bilateral deal.
Ottawa will seek to introduce legislation to its parliament this autumn to approve Britain’s entry to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The UK joined the bloc in 2024, but Canada and Mexico are yet to formally rubber-stamp its membership – meaning British exports to both countries are not eligible for the tariff-free trade outlined in the pact.
LATIN AMERICA
Reuters: Brazilian President Lula says Trump ‘guaranteed’ trade deal with U.S.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump had “guaranteed” that the two countries would reach a deal on trade during a recent meeting between the two leaders.
Lula said at a briefing on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia that his discussions with Trump had gone well and that an agreement would be reached “faster than anyone thinks.”
BrazilReports: Brazil to invest $4 billion in homegrown AI for public sector and research – Thaigo Alves
Brazil’s government has unveiled a comprehensive plan to develop fully homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) models for use across various sectors of public administration. The initiative aims to secure technological autonomy, boost the competitiveness of the Brazilian economy, and promote the responsible use of AI.
The project calls for an investment of R$ 23 billion (USD $4 billion) by 2028, with the majority of the funding provided by the state. A key component of this initiative is the upgrade of the Santos Dumont supercomputer, operated by the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC) in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. Once upgraded, the machine is expected to rank among the top five in the world in processing capacity, supporting a wide range of research needs.
TechPolicyPress: How Big Tech Avoided Regulation in Brazil – Sergio Spagnuolo, Juliana Dal Piva, Sofia Costa, Alexandre Orrico
Over the past decade, big technology companies have built robust government relations teams in Brazil, establishing a lobbying system that has achieved repeated success in blocking regulations contrary to their interests in Congress.
A data investigation by Núcleo identified a network of 75 government relation professionals hired by 15 major tech companies, working directly on corporate engagement with the Executive and Legislative branches. This investigation was as part of the project “The Invisible Hand of Big Tech,” an effort led by Agência Pública and the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP).
