GLOBAL
WTO: WTO members consider new e-commerce proposal and previous submissions ahead of MC14
At a meeting on the Work Programme on E-Commerce on 3 March, WTO members considered a proposal to establish a Committee on Digital Trade as part of a draft decision on e-commerce for the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), which will take place from 26 to 29 March in Yaound Cameroon. Members also continued discussions on the reinvigoration of the Work Programme and on the moratorium on the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions on the basis of two other proposals.
IISD: Electronic Commerce and the World Trade Organization: State of play ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference – Rashmi Jose, Rashid S. Kaukab
This report provides a state-of-play update of the two main e-commerce tracks at the WTO: the multilateral Work Programme on Electronic Commerceincluding debates on the future of the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissionsand the plurilateral Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on electronic commerce, where a coalition of members has been negotiating new disciplines aimed at fostering an open, predictable, and trusted digital trade environment. Focusing on developments in 2024 and 2025, the report identifies key issues, areas of convergence and divergence, and the milestones ahead of the Fourteenth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14). It also outlines the expected elements of the potential Agreement on Electronic Commerce. This publication forms part of a broader series tracking the evolution of e-commerce discussions at the WTO to support policy-makers and negotiators navigating this rapidly evolving field.
Reuters: Exclusive: US orders diplomats to fight data sovereignty initiatives – Raphael Satter and Alexandra Alper
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered U.S. diplomats to lobby against attempts to regulate U.S. tech companies’ handling of foreigners’ data, saying in an internal diplomatic cable seen by Reuters that such efforts could interfere with artificial intelligence-related services.
Experts say the move signals the Trump administration is reverting to a more confrontational approach as some foreign countries seek limits around how Silicon Valley firms process and store their citizens personal information – initiatives often described as data sovereignty or data localization.
CSIS: The New Containment Doctrine: How the United States Is Using Trade to Stop Digital Regulation – Duc Minh Nguyet (Moon) Nguyen and Philip Luck
In January 2026, the Department of State imposed visa restrictions on five European officials involved in drafting the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), an escalation in the Trump administrations campaign against digital regulation. These visa actions may be the most direct measures targeting the European Union stemming from frictions over the DMA, but they are by no means the only front in this growing conflict. At the same time it has acted directly against the European Union, the administration has also sought to embed antidigital regulation clauses into bilateral trade agreements with other partners, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Argentina, Guatemala, and El Salvador, with similar language appearing in framework deals with Ecuador, Thailand, and others.
The strategy marks a shift. Unable to roll back EU regulations at their source, the administration is trying to contain their spread. Using tariff threats as leverage, the United States is transforming what has been a domestic regulatory choice into a negotiable trade concession, seeking to establish precedents that will shape digital governance negotiations for years.
The administrations campaign extends beyond Brussels. The United States has embedded anti-regulation clauses into bilateral trade agreements and frameworks with at least nine countries across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Europe. The agreements share nearly identical languages.
CarnegieEndowmentforInternationalPeace: How Middle Powers Are Responding to Trumps Tariff Shifts – Barbara Weisel
In the wake of the February 20 Supreme Court tariff ruling, President Donald Trump has made clear he intends to continue wielding his favorite economic tool. Indeed, at a press conference shortly after the decision, Trump announced that his administration would impose a 10 percent global tariff, then declared the next day he would raise that figure to 15 percent, before ultimately letting the 10 percent rate standat least for now. Instead of imposing tariffs via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the Supreme Court declared unlawful, Trump said he will temporarily employ a never-used authority for these tariffs, and then use Section 301, which the administration has previously used to impose tariffs on China.
The uncertaintiesincluding the status of the bilateral trade deals the United States has already concludednow seem to outnumber the certainties, save for the fact that the administration remains intent on using tariffs as a negotiating tool and to raise revenue. So although the president now faces some limits on his ability to impose tariffs, the decision does not alter the urgency many countries see in acting collectively to advance their economic interests. And they have ideas.
To date, countries have focused on responding to the immediate threat the Trump administrations tariffs pose to them, leaving limited bandwidth for consideration of future trade architectures. Then, in a speech at Davos in January, Canadian Prime Minister Carney exhorted middle powers to act together, lest they be on the menu. Carney noted Canadas efforts to build a bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries that the United States exited under Trump in 2017, and the EU. Neither bloc appears to be looking at negotiating an entirely new agreement, which they likely recognize would be an extremely prolonged (and potentially unachievable) process. Instead, they are contemplating negotiation of rules that would align some key elements of EU agreements and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to advance their common interests.
NYT: U.K., Australia and Others Worse Off Under Trumps New Tariffs – Eshe Nelson and Aaron Krolik
After the Supreme Court struck down the legal basis for President Trumps sweeping tariffs on Friday, many U.S. trading partners saw the tariff rate on their goods lowered from what they faced before the ruling. But for others, like Britain and Australia, the math went the other way.
Like the earlier reciprocal tariffs that were invalidated by the court, the new import duties upend years of economic cooperation. In some cases, the new tariffs thrust into doubt trade deals agreed to only months ago.
The higher global tariff rate makes Britain the biggest loser among Americas top 20 import countries, with Japan, South Korea and major European Union members also worse off, according to Global Trade Alert, a nonprofit policy tracker. Brazil, China and India stand to benefit the most.
Medianama: Meta to Charge Advertisers Location Fees to Offset Digital Service Taxes – Prabhanu Kumar Das
Meta has announced location fees on ads delivered on Meta platforms in certain countries that charge digital services taxes (DST) and similar location-specific fees. The company said that it had previously absorbed these costs and credited the change to an evolving regulatory landscape and industry standards. For context, DSTs are taxes that governments impose on the revenue large digital platforms earn from users in their country, even if the company has no physical presence there.
The additional fees will apply when ads target users in jurisdictions that tax digital platform revenues. Consequently, advertisers focusing on these markets will see extra charges on their invoices.
ASIA
KoreaHerald: US investors drop Section 301 petition over Coupang probe – Kan Hyeong-woo
Two US investors in Coupang Greenoaks and Altimeter have withdrawn their petition urging the United States Trade Representative to investigate the South Korean governments handling of the e-commerce platform following a massive data breach in November last year.
Over the last several weeks, we have had constructive discussions with the USTR that underscored the threat posed by the Korean Governments actions against US technology firms like Coupang, said Greenoaks in a press release.
USTR has further announced that it expects to initiate broader Section 301 investigations into unfair trade practices affecting American companies, including discrimination against US technology companies and their digital goods and services.
PolicyCircle: Digital trade agreements will test Indias data sovereignty – Srinath Sridharan
For advanced digital economies, unrestricted data mobility is often a strategic objective. Free movement of data allows technology firms to operate integrated global infrastructures in which computing resources, analytics capabilities and artificial intelligence systems are distributed across multiple jurisdictions.
For emerging digital economies, the implications are more complex. Data generated by economic activity represents a source of technological advantage. It supports domestic innovation, strengthens digital entrepreneurship and enables the development of artificial intelligence applications tailored to local markets. When the value embedded in this data is extracted primarily through foreign digital infrastructures, domestic capabilities may struggle to evolve.
Indias policy approach reflects this strategic consideration. Regulatory frameworks governing data protection and digital infrastructure attempt to retain the ability of the state to guide the development of domestic digital ecosystems. The objective is preservation of policy space that allows the country to build technological capacity at scale.
India should also consider building coalitions with other emerging digital economies that share similar concerns about data governance and platform dominance. A coordinated approach among large developing markets would strengthen negotiating leverage in global trade discussions. Such alliances could help shape balanced digital trade norms that encourage innovation while preserving the regulatory autonomy of sovereign states.
Medianama: India Plans Three-Tier Social Media Restrictions Rather Than Complete Ban for Children Under 18: Report – Aakriti Bansal
The central government is preparing a separate law for age-based social media restrictions for children under 18, rejecting outright bans in favour of a graded, nuanced approach, according to unnamed senior government sources who spoke to Indian Express. The law could be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament.
Unlike Karnataka and Andhra Pradeshs ban proposals, the central government plans three age brackets with different restrictions for each group.
EUROPE
Politico: EU lawmakers keep US trade deal in the freezer – Max Griera, Camille Gijs and Koen Verhelst
The European Parliaments trade lawmakers decided on Wednesday to keep the EU-U.S. trade deal frozen amidst volatile transatlantic relations.
A majority of political groups voted not to move ahead with legislation to implement the EUs side of the bargain struck at President Donald Trumps Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last summer.
Politico: US committed to EU trade deal, top Trump official tells Brussels – Camille Gijs and Max Griera
A top Trump administration official has reassured Brussels that Washington remains committed to its trade deal with the European Union, amid mounting fears in Europe and the U.S. that the agreement could unravel.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the EUs trade chief Marofviin a call Monday evening that the United States intends to stick to the deal, three people familiar with the conversation told POLITICO.
Politico: EU to respond firmly and proportionately to any breach of US trade deal – Carlo Martuscelli
The EU will respond firmly and proportionately to any breach of its trade deal with the U.S. reached last year, European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said Thursday.
Gill was responding to probes into unfair trade practices launched by the U.S. overnight against the EU and other countries. The broad-spectrum investigations could result in the imposition of new tariffs, raising concerns in Brussels that this would breach the terms of the deal struck at President Donald Trumps Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
NYT: E.U. Pushes Ahead With South American Trade Deal Despite Legal Challenge
The European Union will forge ahead with putting in place a major trade deal with four South American countries, officials said on Friday, even after lawmakers began a legal challenge that could have delayed the agreement for years.
Last month, lawmakers in the European Parliament referred the deal, which is set to create one of the largest free-trade zones in the world, with more than 700 million people, to the European Court of Justice. That had the potential to delay the deal up to two years.
But on Friday, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that the deal with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, together known as Mercosur, would be provisionally applied.
Politico: EU set to ban AI nudification apps in wake of Grok scandal – Pieter Haeck
Artificial intelligence systems that can generate sexualized deepfakes of real people would be banned in the EU under proposals seen by POLITICO.
The push comes after Xs AI tool Grok allowed users to generate millions of images of real people in bikinis or fully nude, including images of children.
A proposal set to be approved by EU ambassadors on Friday would make it illegal to market in Europe any artificial intelligence system that can generate non-consensual sexualized videos, images or audio files involving real people.
BBC: MPs reject call for under-16s social media ban, backing more flexible powers – Jennifer McKiernan
MPs have rejected an Australia-style ban on social media for under-16s, and have instead backed flexible ministerial powers.
A ban on sites like Tiktok, Instagram, and Snapchat was brought in for children in Australia at the end of last year – the first country to impose a ban – and similar plans were backed by peers in the House of Lords in January.
NORTH AMERICA
FT: Trump ponders Plans B to D after his favourite tariffs are taken away – Alan Beattie
IEEPA is dead; long live Section 122, the tariff authority supposedly aimed at resolving serious balance of payments problems, which Trump has alighted on as his stopgap until he has managed to get the Section 232 (national security) and Section 301 (unfair trade) tariffs up and going. In this section Im mainly doing a bit of catch-up, pointing you to things that cleverer people than me have written about whether these tariffs are objectively justified (mainly no) and whether they can stand legal challenge (probably for long enough). Theres a great rundown of all of this in former Joe Biden administration official Peter Harrells paper here; see also a very critical take on the Section 122 in Foreign Policy magazine here, and academic and former policymaker Jennifer Hillman, who predicted the Scotus IEEPA decision, on Section 301 here. First of all, the Section 122. The canonical economic critique has come from former IMF second-in-command Gita Gopinath, who points out that persistent trade deficits under a floating exchange rate are somewhat akin to high cholesterol whereas the Section 122 is designed for the equivalent of a heart attack, a balance of payments crisis under a fixed exchange rate system which drains official reserves. Extending the metaphor, using it now would be like employing a defibrillator when all you really need is some statins and 10,000 steps a day.
FarmWeekNow: Trump doubling down on trade policy – Tammie Sloup
The Trump administration is doubling down on its trade policy in 2026.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer delivered President Donald Trumps 2026 trade policy agenda and 2025 annual report to Congress March 1, as required by law, which points to six core areas of focus this year:
- Continue the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) program
- Pursue robust enforcement of ARTs, other trade agreements and U.S. trade laws
- Secure supply chains for critical minerals and sectors
- Conduct the review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
- Manage trade with China for reciprocity and balance
- Promote American interests in international fora
NewsWeek: Donald Trump Hit With Avalanche of Tariff Lawsuits – Jesus Mesa
President Donald Trump is facing an onslaught of legal challenges over his administrations tariff policies.
Costco, Wanxiang Automotive Components, PMI Worldwide, and nearly two dozen states are all filing suits, joining more than 1,000 other companies arguing the import taxes are unlawful and causing widespread economic harm.
The tariff disputes center on two separate legal battles. The first involves tariffs the Supreme Court already struck down in February 2026, ruling that Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Those tariffs collected $133 billion before being invalidated, and more than 2,000 companies are now suing to recover what they paid.
The second battle is over Trumps response. After the Supreme Court ruling, he immediately imposed new 10 percent tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, signaling plans to raise them to 15 percent. States and companies are now challenging this new tariff regime as an illegal end-run around the courts decision.
Jurist: Coalition of 24 states sue over Trumps Section 122 tariffs – Ben Golin
A coalition of 24 US states on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trumps implementation of new global tariffs following the Supreme Courts February decision striking down his earlier tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Thursdays complaint, filed in the US Court of International Trade, argues that President Trump unlawfully applied Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 in his February 20 imposition of an ad valorem import duty on products imported into the United States. The case, Oregon et al. v. Trump et al., names the President, the Department of Homeland Security, and US Customs and Border Protection as defendants, and requests a three-judge panel under 28 U.S.C. 255 given the constitutional scope of the issues raised.
NYT: The Big Problem With Tariffs Isnt the Rates. Its the Corruption – Shane Ball and Kimberly Clausing
President Trump is resurrecting his tariffs, after a Supreme Court ruling that struck down many of those he levied during his first year back in office. This means higher costs for American consumers and businesses and more economic uncertainty.
Whats worse, these new tariffs will enable more preference-peddling on the part of Mr. Trump and his administration, tilting the economic playing field toward large and well-connected businesses. Mr. Trump still has plenty of tariff-setting authorities to exercise, and he has shown that he will play favorites when given the chance.
Lobbying increased dramatically when Mr. Trump levied his previous battery of tariffs. Politically connected firms received exemptions, and the dollar amount of tariff exemptions skyrocketed. Before Mr. Trumps second term, hardly any U.S. imports were exempted from tariffs. By December, 51 percent of imports were exempt. There is now even a tariff inclusion process through which firms can lobby for new tariffs on their competitors abroad; the Commerce Department has approved a slew of petitions.
Politico: White House faces thousands of lawsuits as it tries to slow-walk tariff refunds – Ari Hawkins
Businesses are giving up hope the Trump administration will quickly issue refunds for the billions of dollars paid in tariffs the Supreme Court invalidated last month. Now theyre lawyering up and preparing for a drawn-out legal fight.
In the immediate aftermath of the Feb. 20 ruling, major trade groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for swift and seamless refunds of more than $130 billion in duties collected during the presidents second term. The administration, however, is working to slow them down on Monday, an appeals court denied its request to delay refund proceedings until around June while privately weighing options to delay refunds indefinitely.
TheGuardian: The real winners of Trumps global tariff war: law firms, hedge funds and AI – Kalyeena Makortoff
But that Fridays ruling deeming Trumps tariffs illegal opened the floodgates, sending hundreds of thousands of businesses across the US scrambling for advice on how to secure their share of an estimated $175bn (129bn) tariff refund pot.
Already, FedEx, LOreal, Dyson and others have sued for refunds. Now clients are looking for trade lawyers at a rate unseen throughout Spraragens 30-year career. Its unprecedented, he said.
And that wave, some experts say, will result in a mini-gold rush for a usually unglamorous corner of the US legal sector: delivering fees for trade lawyers, paydays for hedge funds buying up rights to businesses refunds and a cut for AI firms that are inevitably trying to get in on the action.
How any of that money ultimately filters through to American consumers, who shouldered tariff costs through widespread price hikes, remains to be seen.
NYT: Trumps Trade Gamble Will Continue, Despite Supreme Court Rebuke – Ana Swanson
The Supreme Court may have ruled 6-3 against President Trumps use of an international emergency law to impose tariffs. But Mr. Trump seems intent on continuing the experiment he has run with the U.S. economy over the past year, in which he has raised tariffs to levels not seen since the 1930s.
In a news conference at the White House on Friday, Mr. Trump made a series of false claims about the economic impact of tariffs and he promised to replace, or even increase, them using laws other than the one the court rejected.
To the president, tariffs are the antidote to globalization, a way to force more manufacturing back to the United States, reduce Americas reliance on foreign products and lower the trade deficit. But the economic evidence so far has not been in his favor. Instead of shifting manufacturing back into the United States, Mr. Trumps tariffs mostly appear to have reshuffled trade, at great cost to U.S. companies.
