GLOBAL
PublicCitizen: Trump’s Goal for the WTO: Stopping Taxes on Big Tech – Melanie Foley
At the upcoming World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Cameroon, trade officials from every WTO country will meet to discuss the future of a global order that has been thrown into turmoil by the Trump administration’s hostile trade policies.
One of the critical issues on the agenda at MC14 is the future of the WTO’s E-Commerce Moratorium. As we have discussed previously, the Moratorium restricts countries from imposing import taxes on business-to-consumer and business-to-business transactions that take place across borders over the internet.
The Trump administration, despite its seeming hostility towards the WTO itself, is pushing hard for the WTO to make the Moratorium permanent.
This is part of a broader trend of the Trump administration — to stop other countries regulating U.S.-based Big Tech companies, while actively undermining regulation and enforcement efforts at home.
By using bilateral negotiations to whittle down opposition to the Moratorium, the Trump administration is actively pushing to secure a win for Big Tech at MC14.
Countries should be wary of signing any deal to extend the Moratorium and should certainly oppose any deal to make it permanent. Doing so would jeopardize any notions of digital sovereignty and equitable distribution of the benefits of the digital economy.
A decision on the Moratorium is not a referendum about whether or not it is good policy for a country to apply customs duties to electronic transmissions. If the benefits to all parties of a Moratorium were as overwhelming as claimed by its proponents, a global agreement would not be necessary, as no government would impose such customs duties. Instead, what is at stake is the sovereign ability of states to decide if and how to regulate the digital ecosystem, and the critical issue of preserving the policy tools available to a state to implement public and economic policy in its national and public interest.
SOMO: Presenting the Big Tech Lobby Playbook – Misa Norigami and Margarida Silva
SOMO’s ‘Big Tech Lobby Playbook’ series explores the tools and tactics of Big Tech’s global influence over law and policymaking.
Across continents and political systems, Big Tech has deployed a clear playbook when it comes to lobbying to protect its business interests. From Brazil to India, the EU to Kenya, the tech giants use the same strategies and tactics to shape, delay or kill regulation that threatens their vast monopoly power and equally vast profits. Whether the battleground is AI or the rights of platform workers, these companies work from the same manual. And why wouldn’t they? As the cases in this series have shown, it works.
The case studies reveal a highly toxic form of political influence, where Big Tech manipulates the legislative and regulatory process in ways that threaten the fabric of democracy. The strategies tech giants use go well beyond classic corporate lobbying. Like most powerful business sectors, Big Tech has regular and direct access to senior politicians and policymakers. But their access has an edge no other business sector has ever had, not even the most powerful of traditional media empires: control of global communication infrastructure. By owning the way people access and share information, Big Tech is in a position to threaten governments and shape the environment in which public debate happens.
The six strategies outlined below are not all unique to Big Tech, but they are being used in ways that are distinctive to the tech giants. By exposing and understanding Big Tech’s playbook, we can begin to build the counter-power needed to reclaim democratic control over the digital future.
Bilaterals: Where is globalisation headed? – Achille Delaunay
Neoliberal globalisation has come to an end. Over the past fifteen years, a succession of economic crises, intensifying geopolitical rivalries, paralysis within multilateral institutions and popular resistance to free trade have profoundly shaken the organisation of international commerce as it took shape after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Donald Trump’s presidencies accelerated this shift — the second appearing to deliver the final blow. For economic justice groups, this upheaval raises direct questions about the scope for political manoeuvre, potential alliances and imminent risks in a world where trade is increasingly used as a blunt instrument of power.
ASIA
KoreaHerald: US investors escalate legal fight with Seoul over Coupang – No Kyung-min
A growing group of US investors in Coupang Inc. are intensifying a legal dispute with the Korean government over what they call discriminatory action against the company following its massive data breach last year, adding to broader Korea-US tensions.
Abrams Capital, Durable Capital Partners and Foxhaven said Wednesday they have joined Greenoaks and Altimeter Capital in challenging Seoul through investor-state dispute settlement proceedings, alleging the Korean government made “defamatory claims” against Coupang, a US-listed company that disclosed a data breach in November affecting some 33.7 million users in Korea.
Greenoaks and Altimeter last month notified the Korean government of plans to pursue arbitration under the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement and also filed a petition with the US Trade Representative seeking an investigation into Korea under Section 301 of the Trade Act.
They alleged in a statement in January that regulatory pressure by the Korean government targeting Coupang “appears to far exceed the scrutiny imposed on domestic Korean and Chinese competitors.”
The dispute has begun drawing attention in the US Congress, with the House Judiciary Committee issuing a subpoena to Coupang leadership to provide testimony later this month as part of a probe examining whether foreign enforcement actions are being used to unfairly target US companies abroad.
Soyincau: Malaysia-US Trade Deal: US tech giants exempted from digital taxes and USP fund contribution, but what about local players? – Alexander Wong
Last weekend, Malaysia and the United States (US) have signed a trade agreement which covers several aspects in the digital and technology space.
Among the key provisions is Malaysia’s agreement not to impose a digital service tax on US tech companies and to scrap the mandatory 6% contribution to a domestic fund previously required to operate in the country.
When it comes to ICT infrastructure, including 5G and 6G, Malaysia also commits to using only technology suppliers that meet agreed security standards, in mutual consultation with the United States.
Under the agreement, Malaysia shall not impose any form of digital services taxes, or similar taxes that discriminate against US tech companies. This is seen as a move to protect US-based digital service providers ranging from social media to streaming and cloud computing platforms.
Malaysia has imposed a 6% digital tax on online services since 1st January 2020. The government has collected over RM400 million in the first year and RM1.6 billion in 2024. The service tax on digital services is applicable on various online platforms such as Google, Netflix, Adobe, PlayStation Store, Steam, Facebook and AWS.
Besides digital tax, Malaysia has agreed to exempt US social media and cloud service providers from contributing to a domestic fund in order to operate in Malaysia. The clause effectively exempts major US tech platforms from contributing to MCMC’s Universal Service Provision (USP) fund, which supports telecommunications and rural connectivity initiatives such as deploying new towers and fibre in underserved areas.
Will Malaysia extend the 6% digital-tax exemption and 6% USP-fund contribution waiver to Malaysia-based platforms and cloud-service providers? If not, this could create an uneven playing field where US tech companies enjoy preferential advantages over home-grown innovators.
FreeMalaysiaToday: 5 PN MPs seek Federal Court reference on US-Malaysia trade deal
Five Perikatan Nasional (PN) MPs are seeking to refer constitutional questions over the Malaysia-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) to the Federal Court.
In their court papers, the plaintiffs argued that Anwar lacked the constitutional authority to bind the federation to the agreement.
They are seeking declarations that the prime minister and the government failed to uphold their constitutional duty of collective responsibility, and that the attorney-general failed to properly advise them on the constitutional prerequisites before Malaysia could be lawfully bound to the deal.
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that the trade agreement, including its outcomes, is unconstitutional and void.
MoneyControl: What changed? Tracking the revisions in the US–India fact sheet – Ishaan Gera
The White House fact sheet on the India-US trade agreement appears to have undergone notable revisions within hours of its release, with references to digital services taxes, pulses imports and customs duties on electronic transmissions removed in a subsequent version.
The updated fact sheet now broadly aligns with the joint statement issued earlier by the two countries, reverting to language closer to the language formally agreed.
Perhaps the most consequential change concerned digital trade. The first version of the fact sheet suggested that India would remove its digital services tax and continue the prohibition on customs duties on electronic transmissions, language that wasn’t there in the bilateral joint statement. These references were subsequently removed.
The issue is particularly sensitive given the global debate over digital taxation and electronic-transmission duties. The World Trade Organization moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions, first introduced in 1998, is scheduled to expire in March 2026. While developed economies have generally favoured extending the moratorium, several developing countries, including India, have raised concerns over potential revenue losses.
SSRN: The WTO E-Commerce Moratorium After MC13 (2024): Legal Status, Development Impacts, and India’s Strategy to 2026 – Raj Rathi
The digital economy has become one of the fastest-growing sectors of international trade, with electronic transmissions accounting for an increasingly large share of cross-border commercial flows. Since 1998, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has maintained a provisional moratorium prohibiting customs duties on electronic transmissions. At the WTO’s Thirteenth Ministerial Conference (MC13) held in Abu Dhabi in March 2024, members once again extended the moratorium but only until the Fourteenth Ministerial Conference or 31 March 2026, whichever is earlier. This decision marked the first time that the moratorium was explicitly tied to a sunset clause, creating a sense of urgency regarding its future. The very existence of this uncertainty highlights that the problem exists: while developed countries advocate for a permanent ban on digital tariffs to ensure the smooth functioning of global e-commerce, several developing countries, including India, South Africa, and Indonesia, argue that the moratorium erodes their fiscal autonomy, reduces tariff policy space, and threatens long-term development prospects.
If the problem persists without resolution, the disadvantages will multiply. First, the absence of clarity on the scope of “electronic transmissions” leaves WTO members vulnerable to legal ambiguity: does the moratorium cover only the act of transmission, or also the digitized content of goods such as e-books, films, or software? Second, the continued renewal of the moratorium without clear economic compensation risks locking developing countries into permanent revenue losses. Studies by UNCTAD estimate that developing countries forego billions of dollars in potential tariff revenue annually due to the inability to tax digitalized goods and services. For India, where tariff policy remains an important instrument of industrial and trade policy, the erosion of this space may undermine national interests. Third, the lack of definition also exposes WTO law to inconsistencies, as digitization blurs the boundary between goods (GATT) and services (GATS). If the problem persists, the WTO could face both a legal legitimacy crisis and a widening development divide between digital exporters and net importers.
NYT: Move Fast, but Obey the Rules: China’s Vision for Dominating A.I. – Meaghan Tobin and Xinyun Wu
Mr. Xi’s remarks highlight a tension shaping China’s tech industry. China’s leadership has decided that A.I. will drive the country’s economic growth in the next decade. At the same time, it cannot allow the new technology to disrupt the stability of Chinese society and the Communist Party’s hold over it.
The result is that the government is pushing Chinese A.I. companies to do two things at once: move fast so China can outpace international rivals and be at the forefront of the technological shift, while complying with an increasingly complex set of rules.
AFRICA
HuschBlackwell: Congress Restores AGOA and Haiti HELP Trade Preferences
On February 3, 2026, the United States House of Representatives narrowly passed a comprehensive spending bill. While the primary aim of the bill was to end a partial government shutdown and fund several federal agencies, it also included the restoration and extension of two key trade preference programs: the African Growth and Opportunity Act (“AGOA”) and the Haiti Economic Lift Program Extension Act (“Haiti HELP”). Both programs are now authorized to continue through December 31, 2026. President Trump signed the bill into law later that same day.
RIA: Leveraging economic policy for equitable and just AI in Africa – Sandra Makumbirofa
In an effort to unleash AI’s transformative developmental potential, this policy brief calls on policymakers and regulators in Africa to meaningfully address deep-rooted structural inequality through targeted economic policy. Without an enabling policy environment, AI deployment in African economies risks introducing labour disruption, unfair competition, tax base erosion, and intensified inequality.
However, this brief argues that, if African states can introduce regulations that simultaneously mitigate risks while enabling AI innovation and value creation, the continent may be able to harness digital transformation for just futures. By examining AI’s impact on, and reorganisation of, the foundations of production – including how data, capital and labour are mobilised – this brief critically assesses how AI adoption in low and middle-income economies must be shaped to benefit local communities. With a focus on equity, inclusive development and redistributive justice, Senior Researcher Sandra Makumbirofa makes targeted recommendations for just AI in Africa.
For AI and economic policy in Africa, the piece recommends multistakeholder, participatory oversight mechanisms; algorithmic audits and interpretability centres; digital platform taxation; data governance policies implemented in line with African Union frameworks; regionally harmonised AI standards; and targeted incentives to promote inclusive AI design, among many other evidence-based insights. It concludes that, to achieve structural transformation in Africa, AI strategies must first be rooted in justice.
EUROPE
Politico: EU capitals say deleting US tech is not realistic – Mathieu Pollet
National capitals have a sobering message for Brussels:Europe runs on American technology, and that won’t change for years.
After January brought a warning from EU officials that decades of reliance on U.S. firms could be used as a tool of coercion by the White House, POLITICO surveyed the 27 EU governments to ask how they are handling their relationship with American tech.
The answers revealed a patchwork of efforts to face the new geopolitical reality and a shared outlook that Europe has no quick fix. While Brussels is alive to the continent’s digital reliance, the responses from governments paint a sobering picture as to how quickly Europe can address the strategic vulnerability and regain leverage against Washington.
POLITICO contacted the digital ministries of all 27 countries starting Jan. 22 to ask about government preparations, including whether they had mapped their dependencies on U.S. tech and whether they had a crisis plan for any disruption or restriction in services.
Politico: EU Parliament reaches deal on US trade pact – Max Griera and Camille Gijs
The European Parliament’s top trade lawmakers on Tuesday agreed a common position on the EU-U.S. trade deal, in a move that will be met with relief both in Washington and in Brussels.
The agreement, struck by the centrist groups in the chamber, comes after weeks of wrangling between European lawmakers over whether to attach new strings to the deal struck by President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last summer.
PvBT: PvBT Statement condemning House Judiciary attacks against the DSA and European CSOs
People vs Big Tech and allies strongly condemn the recent report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee attacking the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and smearing European civil society organisations.
Recent hostile attacks against European civil society organisations and their tech related research and advocacy – including the US Government’s travel bans in December – are unacceptable. We call on the European Commission and EU Governments to hold strong on Europe’s tech rules and defend civil society under threat.
EDRI: Reopening GDPR and ePrivacy through the Digital Omnibus: a risky path for EU digital rights
EDRi has assessed the Digital Omnibus proposals affecting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy framework. While presented as simplification, the changes amount to deregulation in effect, weakening fundamental rights safeguards, increasing legal uncertainty, and advancing through a process that falls short of democratic lawmaking standards.
EDRI: AI Omnibus: Reject the proposals to undermine transparency in the AI Act
The European Commission’s dangerous and misguided Digital Omnibus proposal includes a dangerous rollback of transparency requirements in the AI Act. 60 civil society organisations, independent public authorities and individuals, including EDRi, urge EU lawmakers to reject a change that would risk weakening enforcement, legal certainty, and the protection of fundamental rights, while offering negligible benefits for companies.
NORTH AMERICA
PoliticoPro: House Judiciary Committee subpoenas Coupang in Korea trade dispute – Ari Hawkins
House Judiciary Committee Republicans subpoenaed e-commerce company Coupang on Wednesday for documents related to its communications with South Korean regulators, as part of a probe into Seoul’s treatment of the company and the government’s digital policies, more generally.
“The targeting of Coupang and the potential prosecution of its American executives serve as a sharp escalation of South Korea’s campaign against innovative American-owned companies,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Chair Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) wrote in a cover letter addressed to Coupang Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Harold Rogers, who is required to appear for a deposition.
Coupang, South Korea’s largest online retailer, disclosed in November that it had suffered a data breach risking more than 33 million users’ personal information.
Korean regulators and lawmakers subsequently launched a sweeping series of investigations and enforcement actions against the company, with some floating hefty fines and criminal liability.
In their letter sent Thursday, Jordan and Fitzgerald highlighted a provision in a White House fact sheet on the South Korea agreement that directs Seoul to “ensure that U.S. companies are not discriminated against and do not face unnecessary barriers” in laws and policies governing digital services, including online platforms.
“Despite this trade agreement, the Korean government has continued to engage in targeted attacks on American-owned businesses,” the lawmakers wrote.
Politico: Most Americans have never used their website. The company has become a player in Washington, anyway – Ari Hawkins and Daniel Desrochers
Rep. Adrian Smith, Republican of Nebraska, was indignant. Fed up with the South Korean government’s pursuit of strict digital commerce laws, Smith used a January hearing to denounce the country for “aggressively targeting U.S. technology leaders.”
“One example would be Coupang,” added Smith, who chairs an influential House subcommittee.
And now the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are siding forcefully with Coupang and against the Korean government on matters of digital commerce.
“They seem to be successful in gaining traction with U.S. policymakers because, unlike other U.S. companies, they have a laser focus on one issue — digital discrimination — in one country — Korea,” said Wendy Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, and former acting deputy U.S. trade representative during the Obama administration.
A tentative agreement between the Trump administration and South Korean governments to lower tariffs on both sides, along with a $350 billion investment pledge from the South Korean government, is now at risk of unraveling over Seoul’s continued efforts to enact new restrictions on big tech platforms, among other issues. Coupang’s defenders in the U.S. are fanning the flames.
“This is what happens when you unfairly target American companies like Coupang,” House Judiciary Committee Republicans’ X account posted last month after Trump threatened on social media to raise tariffs on South Korea.
WhiteHouse: Fact Sheet: The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal
ACHIEVING RECIPROCAL TRADE: Last Friday, in a Joint Statement, President Donald J. Trump announced a trade deal between the United States and India that will open up India’s market of over 1.4 billion people to American products.
Also on the call, President Trump agreed to remove the additional 25% tariff on imports from India in recognition of India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil. Accordingly, the President signed an Executive Order last Friday removing that additional 25% tariff.
Given India’s willingness to align with the United States to confront systemic imbalances in the bilateral trade relationship and shared national security challenges, the United States will lower the Reciprocal Tariff on India from 25% to 18%.
India committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules that address discriminatory or burdensome practices and other barriers to digital trade.
FT: Trump plans to spare Amazon, Google and Microsoft from next wave of chip tariffs – James Politi
Donald Trump’s alliance with Big Tech companies powering the AI boom is continuing to grow in his second term.
Aime Williams is reporting that the US administration will allow a big carve-out from forthcoming chip tariffs to US customers of TSMC, the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer, in a move that will benefit groups including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
The exemption highlights the extent to which the White House is doubling down on its bet that Silicon Valley giants — with whom Trump has had a frosty relationship in the past — are crucial to America’s economic success, and deserve special treatment even as other businesses struggle due to his sweeping levies.
NewYorkPost: Trump reveals how he’ll make Hollywood great again: ‘We’ll bring it back’ – Steven Nelson, Emily Goodin and Marisa Schultz
President Trump plans to slap tariffs on foreign-made films and launch a new bond program for studios to boost Los Angeles’ movie-making dominance.
“I’m going to be putting tariffs on movies from outside of the country — if they’re made in Canada, if they’re made in all these places, because Los Angeles has lost the movie industry,” Trump told The California Post Friday in the Oval Office.
Trump threatened in September to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, but he has not yet done so. His bond plan could help studios finance work — though he did not detail how it would work.
SOMO: The United States: Birthplace of the Big Tech lobby playbook
Big Tech’s influence on the US government is long-standing. The companies have often been pushing on an open door, especially under the Obama administration(opens in new window) (from 2009 to 2017). Only Biden (from 2021 to 2025) took a different approach, promoting robust antitrust efforts (opens in new window)and digital trade policies.(opens in new window) Yet whatever limited progress there was has already been undone by the current Trump administration.
Indeed, Trump has gone full tilt in the opposite direction and has embraced Silicon Valley’s biggest names with open arms. The level of entanglement between the president and a specific corporate sector, exemplified by the power initially given to Elon Musk, is unprecedented.
The entanglements are deep, financial, and offer a handful of US Big Tech companies access to political power at the highest level in the world’s largest economy. In a country whose political donation system has been described as legalised corruption(opens in new window) , Big Tech’s relationship with the Trump administration has taken political influence to a whole new level.
This lobbying success, in the US and elsewhere, has been massively enabled by a narrative framing that ties the economic fortunes of AI companies with those of states or entire regions.
NBC: House votes to nix Trump’s tariffs on Canada in rebuke of trade agenda – Kyle Stewart and Kyla Guilfoil
The Republican-led House voted Wednesday to terminate President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on Canada as six GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in a largely symbolic rebuke of the administration’s trade policy.
Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods last year after invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He then threatened different tariff amounts throughout the past year over certain political demands. Most recently, he threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if it went ahead with a trade deal with China.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters he was “disappointed” by Wednesday’s vote, but that it wouldn’t change Trump’s trade policy.
“The president has veto power, and there’s not a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override the veto, so it’s not going to change the policy in the end anyway,” he said. “I think this is a fruitless exercise and a pointless one.”
ITIF: Coalition Letter Requesting Trade Subcommittee Hearings on Non-Tariff Attacks Against US Technology Companies
Industry lobbying group, the ITIF have written to the House Trade Subcommittee requesting hearings to examine supposed cases of non tariff attacks against US technology companies.
The letter regurgitates familiar industry talking points – how countries are supposedly restricting the ability of U.S. firms to innovate and compete on level terms by implementing discriminatory digital regulations. The letter goes on to request Congress to examine digital regulations in a range of countries from the EU to Brazil, Australia, India, Japan, Turkey, and Korea, with the aim of identifying policy solutions to cope with what they term “undue attacks on American tech firms”.
LATIN AMERICA
APublica: Inside Big Tech’s playbook to halt media compensation laws – By Krisna Adhi Pradipta, Tempo, et al.
For the past decade, as news outlets struggled to make money in a changing digital market, governments worldwide have been tabling laws to require major tech companies to compensate news outlets for their content.
For just as long, in just about any country attempting to legislate the relationship between the news and digital platforms, Google’s former vice president of news Richard Gingras could be found, arguing that the bills are misguided and that the company is a crusader for a free web, not the scary monolith critics make it out to be.
A collaborative investigation found Google and Meta’s public policy battles with governments and some major media outlets to stop or delay bargaining bills and protect their profits — through building relationships with media, throwing party-like events, making private deals with publishers, turning the public against the media and leaning on the might of the US government — have been vigorous, sustained, and in many countries, successful.
The investigation is part of the Big Tech’s Invisible Hand project, a coalition of 17 media outlets working in 13 countries, led by Agcia Plica and Centro Latinoamericano de Investigaci Periodtica (CLIP), to investigate Big Tech lobbying tactics around the world.
