GLOBAL
Bilaterals: US and others propose e-commerce pact as WTO deadlock deepens – Olivia Le Poidevin and David Lawder
The U.S. and a group of countries are planning to press ahead with their own moratorium on e-commerce duties if Brazil and Turkey continue to oppose an extension of a global deal at World Trade Organization talks on Wednesday, a draft document shows.
Failure at a high-level WTO meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon, in March to renew the long-standing moratorium on duties for cross-border streaming and downloads marked another setback for the WTO’s role in setting global trade rules.
It is a priority for WTO members with large digital economies – including the U.S., the European Union, Canada and Japan – which argue it provides predictability for global digital trade and want it made permanent.
TWN: New GC chair reports no progress on e-com moratorium, WTO reform – D Ravi Kanth
The new chair of the World Trade Organization’s General Council (GC) on 6 May apparently stated that her consultations with members since the failed WTO’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14) in Yaounde, Cameroon, in March, have yielded no progress in resolving the impasse over the extension of the e-commerce moratorium and on WTO reform.
During the GC meeting to discuss the “follow-up” to the failed MC14, the new GC chair, Ambassador Clare Kelly of New Zealand, said she would continue her consultations with members until the next GC meeting in July on the two issues: the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions and the allegedly controversial WTO reform, according to participants familiar with the proceedings.
The seemingly plain statement made by the new GC chair suggests that Brazil is maintaining its position on not extending the e-commerce moratorium beyond two years – a practice that has been in place since 1998 – while Turkiye, the other country that opposed the extension of the moratorium beyond two years, revealed its decision to agree to a four-year moratorium at the GC meeting.
Bilaterals: Resisting Big Tech empires (and their trade rules)
On 25 April 2026, Global Justice Now and the Balanced Economy Project convened the “Resisting Big Tech Empires” conference in London. In a packed venue, speakers, including author and activist Cory Doctorow [1], IT for Change co-founder Anita Gurumurthy [2] and researcher Sofia Scasserra [3], delivered a clear message: digital trade rules are entrenching Big Tech’s power grab over the digital economy. Those rules must be resisted.
One lesson from the conference is obvious: a genuinely progressive digital agenda cannot stop at questions of sovereignty or data control. Would nurturing domestic tech champions to rival US or Chinese firms, while tightening control over national data, produce a more ethical system? Unlikely.
Instead, dignity and collective rights must sit at the heart of digital trade policy. That means democratic governance of the entire digital ecosystem — data, infrastructure, artificial intelligence and algorithms alike. The key issue is not simply who controls data, but whether the datafication of society itself should be challenged. What purposes should data serve? How should we handle sensitive data in health, education or labour? Who benefits from vast digital infrastructures built without democratic oversight? And what would genuinely progressive algorithms look like?
Bilaterals: National security implications in ISDS vis-à-vis AI regulation – Lucas De Ferrari & Nimanniyu Sharma
Technological advances create novel security risks, prompting States to adopt national security measures that restrict foreign investors in this space. As Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) becomes embedded in critical infrastructure, States are increasingly regulating AI systems. This note surveys recent cases where investors have challenged technology-related national security measures and considers how future Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) arbitral tribunals may address analogous AI-related issues.
ASIA
MoneyControl: India pushes for sovereign hosting of Anthropic’s AI models amid Claude Mythos cybersecurity concerns – Meghna Mittal and Danish Khan
Amid rising concerns over Anthropic’s Claude Mythos AI model, the Indian government is pushing for sovereign hosting of the company’s Claude AI models within India, arguing that advanced AI systems meant for sensitive sectors such as banking, telecom and critical infrastructure cannot operate on foreign-hosted infrastructure due to jurisdictional, compliance and national security risks, sources told Moneycontrol.
Officials also raised concerns around localisation and sovereign control, insisting that advanced AI models meant for sensitive sectors such as banking, telecom and critical infrastructure should be hosted in India or within a government-approved sovereign cloud environment.
Medianama: Australia proposes new levy on big tech to fund news, opens draft law for consultation – Rohit Sharma
The Australian government, on April 28, 2026, released draft laws to introduce a ‘News Bargaining Incentive’ that would require large digital platforms to either pay news publishers through commercial deals or face a levy on their revenue. The proposal targets companies like Google, Meta, and TikTok, which have significant revenue and user bases in Australia. Public consultation on the proposal is open until May 18.
The move follows the breakdown of earlier agreements under Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code. This came after Meta declined to renew deals worth about $70 million and instead reduced or removed news from its platforms. The original Code, introduced in 2021, was designed to address bargaining power imbalances between digital platforms and news publishers by pushing companies like Google and Meta into commercial agreements with media organisations. However, regulators later faced challenges as platforms either threatened to block news content or reduced news availability altogether to avoid payment obligations. The new model also aims to close a loophole that allowed companies to avoid payments by dropping news content altogether.
CCIA: CCIA Urges U.S. Action on Australia’s Discriminatory News Tax Proposal
Continuing their attacks on Australia’s news media bargaining code, the CCIA, a lobby group for Big Tech, has urged the U.S. government to “…publicly and forcefully challenge the draft measures, including through targeted trade remedies…”. CCIA’s letter hits all the standard industry talking points – discrimination against U.S. companies, coercion, undermining the open internet and so forth – all of which are easily rebuttable. After all, U.S. companies do dominate various sectors of the economy, which they leverage to gain more profits at the expense of smaller enterprises, users and traditional industries. The creation of walled gardens and other anti competitive behavior clearly indicate that claims of supporting an ‘open’ internet are nothing but eyewash.
AFRICA
DataSyn: Invisible Hands, Visible Futures: The Rise of Africa’s Data Worker Movement in the Age of AI – Joan Kinyua
In conversations about artificial intelligence, the narrative often leans toward innovation, automation, and the promise of a transformed future. AI is framed as efficient, almost magical, an invisible force powering everything from search engines to self-driving systems. But beneath this polished narrative lies a deeply human infrastructure: millions of workers whose labor makes AI systems function.
Across Africa, a quiet but powerful shift is underway. Data workers, content moderators, data labelers, annotators, and other digital workers are beginning to organize, speak out, and demand recognition. What was once an invisible workforce is now finding its voice. In doing so, it is reshaping not only regional labor dynamics but also global conversations about technology, rights, and justice.
This shift is reflected in the emergence of the Data Labelers Association (DLA), a worker-led initiative designed to create a shared platform for data annotators and labelers across Africa and beyond, without restriction by geography or nationality.
DataSyn: Riding the Odds: Platforms, Precarity and Worker Power in Africa – Ruth Castel-Branco
This June, member states of the International Labour Organization are set to adopt a Convention regarding minimum labour standards for the platform economy. While there is broad agreement on the need for regulations, disagreements persist over how platform workers should be classified, what rights they should be entitled to, and who should provide them. Employers’ representatives maintain that platforms merely provide ‘matching services’ between customers and independent contractors – and that algorithmic management is simply a coordination tool rather than a mechanism of labor control (ILO, 2025). Yet they also defend restricting workers from refusing tasks without penalty (ILO, 2025).
Workers’ organizations, along with many governments, counter that platform workers are effectively disguised employees, who have no autonomy over the labor process due to the use of algorithmic management. However, not all African platform workers’ organizations agree. In a context where most people derive a livelihood primarily from informal employment, platformization has also induced a degree of structure, recognition, and opportunity that was previously out of reach. This creates some level of ambivalence among workers and policy-makers alike.
Ultimately, the process of making platform workers legible for regulation is a political rather than technical one. By defining the terms of engagement between capital, labor, and the state, international labor standards operate simultaneously as instruments of protection and mechanisms of control, by determining whose demands are recognized as legitimate and whose are rendered expendable. Regulations must thus be designed carefully to ensure that they strengthen rather than undermine platform workers’ power and organization.
BusinessInsiderAfrica: Kenya moves to unmask $18.5 billion crypto market with tough new tax rules – Ayodeji Adegboyega
The measures, contained in the Finance Bill 2026 currently before Parliament, would compel virtual asset service providers to submit annual reports to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) detailing customer activity, including transaction histories, wallet information, purchase prices, sales values and profits earned from crypto trading.
The proposals mark one of the strongest attempts yet by an African government to bring cryptocurrency trading under the same reporting standards applied to banks and other financial institutions.
Under the draft law, crypto platforms operating in Kenya would be required to identify customers and disclose information linked to reportable users and controlling persons.
EUROPE
EuroNews: EU’s tech sovereignty plan risks trade deal, warns US ambassador – Théophane Hartmann
The US ambassador to the EU has warned the bloc against introducing “protectionist” rules ahead of incoming cloud and semiconductor laws – suggesting a planned tech sovereignty package could threaten the EU-US trade agreement.
Later this month the Commission is set to unveil a bundle of proposed laws that will include the Chips Act review and the Cloud and AI Development Act (CAIDA), which respectively aim to ring-fence subsidies and public procurement for homegrown companies, in a bid to stoke local infrastructure and shrink dependence on foreign tech.
But speaking in an exclusive interview with Euractiv on Monday, Andrew Puzder warned the planned approach “doesn’t sound very consistent with the EU-US trade framework agreement”.
Politico: Trump sets two-month deadline for EU to enact trade deal – Aaron Pellish and Daniel Desrochers
President Donald Trump set a two-month deadline for the European Union to implement a trade deal with the U.S., before he increases tariffs to “much higher levels.”
Trump doubled down on his threat to levy higher tariffs on the EU in a social media post on Thursday, as he continues to push European leaders to enact the terms of the trade accord reached in Scotland last year.
The president said he relayed a July 4th deadline for the agreement during a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Politico: UK calls on ‘middle powers’ to counter over-concentration of AI control – Joseph Bambridge
U.K. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has vowed to work more closely with other “middle powers” to reduce the concentration of power in the AI market — arguing that doing so is in the interest of the United States, too.
In a major speech on Tuesday, Kendall said: “AI is now the engine of economic power and hard power,” but warned that control over the technology is becoming “increasingly concentrated.”
However, she said that “none of this should be taken as weakening our deep, close and enduring relationship with the U.S.”
Instead, she argued that increasing resilience and control aligned with Trump’s call for NATO allies to “step up” by increasing investment in defense and national security.
Reuters: EU countries, lawmakers clinch provisional deal on watered-down AI rules – Foo Yun Chee
EU countries and European Parliament lawmakers on Thursday agreed to watered-down landmark artificial intelligence rules, including delaying their implementation, in a move critics say shows Europe caving in to Big Tech.
The tentative agreement, which needs formal approval from EU governments and the European Parliament in the coming months, followed nine hours of negotiations.
The changes to the AI Act, which entered into force in August 2024 with key provisions phased in, are part of a broader European Commission push to simplify a slew of new digital rules.
The simplification drive came after businesses complained about overlapping regulations and red tape hampering their ability to compete with U.S. and Asian rivals.
TheGuardian: Meta sues Ofcom over fines regime for breaches of Online Safety Act – Dan Milmoand Aisha Down
Meta has launched a legal challenge against the UK’s media regulator over the fees and fines regime it is enforcing under landmark digital safety legislation.
The Facebook and Instagram owner is claiming that Ofcom’s methodology for calculating the charges is flawed and should not be based on a company’s global revenue. Breaches of the Online Safety Act can be punished by fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue (QWR) or £18m – whichever is higher.
Meta argues that fees and potential fines should be based on the country where the company is being regulated and is seeking a judicial review of Ofcom’s decision in the high court. “We and others in the tech industry believe its decisions on the methodology to calculate fees and potential fines are disproportionate,” said a Meta spokesperson.
EC: Keynote address by President von der Leyen at the European Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Children
We are taking action against TikTok and its addictive design – endless scrolling, autoplay and push notifications, you name it. The same applies to Meta, because we believe Instagram and Facebook are failing to enforce their own minimum age of 13. We launched proceedings against X, for Grok’s use in creating and spreading material depicting child sexual abuse. We are investigating platforms that allow children to go down ‘rabbit holes’ of harmful content – such as videos that promote eating disorders or self-harm. All of this is possible because we have created a powerful tool – the Digital Services Act. And we have also created the Digital Markets Act to prevent platforms from abusing market power. We have already closed cases with Apple and Meta, with investigation ongoing with Google. We have shown that we will forge ahead, despite the headwinds we face. We have set rules, it is the law, and those who break it will be held accountable.
We do not expect parents to fit airbags at home. The same must apply to social media. Tech providers are responsible for the safety of their products and their safe use. This is a European principle, that is the basis of the Digital Services Act. High standards for privacy, security and the protection of minors are mandatory. And there are rules against addictive models, harmful content and unwanted contacts. This is ‘safety by design’, and these protections should be strengthened and expanded. That is why we have made children’s rights a priority in our rules for the development and use of AI. And later this year, we will target addictive and harmful design practices with the Digital Fairness Act – attention capture, complex contracts, subscription traps, etcetera. In Europe, safety must be there from the start, not added as an afterthought.
StraitsTimes: China threatens EU with retaliation if it bans Huawei gear
China said it would retaliate against the European Union if it proceeds with a proposal to ban Huawei Technologies Co’s equipment across the continent, escalating tensions in the long-running clash over national security and the communications company’s products.
China’s mission to the EU has asked that the commission erase language that would declare Chinese equipment a cybersecurity concern or label companies from the country as “high risk” suppliers in a proposal from Commission Executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen.
NORTH AMERICA
NYT: Trade Court Rules Trump’s 10% Global Tariff Is Illegal – Tony Romm and Ana Swanson
A panel of federal judges on Thursday found President Trump had violated the law when he imposed a 10 percent tariff on most U.S. imports, dealing yet another legal setback to the White House in its efforts to wage a trade war without the express permission of Congress.
In a split ruling, the Court of International Trade found that Mr. Trump had wrongly invoked a decades-old trade law when he applied those duties beginning in February. The president imposed the levies after his previous set of punishing tariffs was struck down by the Supreme Court.
The decision appeared to place, for now, new limits on Mr. Trump’s trade powers, which he has wielded aggressively in hopes of resetting relationships with allies and adversaries, raising new revenue and encouraging more companies to make their products in the United States.
Politico: Cross-Atlantic DST tensions land in Washington – Bernie Becker
The United Kingdom’s digital services tax could present some awkward moments during King Charles III’s visit to the United States this week.
In fact, President Donald Trump told Reuters that he would personally bring up Britain’s DST with the king.
That came after he threatened to slap large tariffs on the U.K. in retaliation for its digital tax — prompting Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to respond that the policy is doing its job in ensuring Big Tech pays its “fair share,” as our Sophie Inge and Joseph Bambridge noted.
FCC: FCC Looks to Prohibit Electronic Device Testing Using Labs in Countries Without Reciprocal Agreements
Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to launch a rulemaking which proposes prohibiting the recognition of electronic device test labs and certification bodies in foreign countries that have not signed reciprocity agreements to recognize American test labs and certification bodies.
BIPC: USTR Greer Testifies Before House Ways and Means Committee: Tariff Exclusion Process Unlikely
On April 22, 2026, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testified in front of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. “The Trump Administration’s 2026 Trade Policy Agenda” session provided a comprehensive overview of the administration’s trade priorities, strategic utilization of tariffs and upcoming trade negotiations. Ambassador Greer’s testimony demonstrates that the Trump administration’s approach to trade policy and enforcement has remained largely unchanged since the first Trump administration.
Both Committee members and Ambassador Greer expressed strong disapproval of foreign governments that have implemented or plan to implement Digital Service Taxes (DSTs) that target American companies. During questioning, Ambassador Greer indicated that the preferred solution is to negotiate away the DSTs, but the administration is open to applying Section 301 duties if those negotiations fail.
AmericanPhoenix: Reheated Nachos in the Age of Crony Capitalism – Beth Baltzan
In the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, former Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has written a piece optimistically called “The Tech High Ground.” In it, the United States is the defender of the free world, tech companies are good guys, Wall Street just needs a little nudge here and there, and the government should only intervene in the economy for national security purposes. It has a retro feel to it: neoliberalism, but tweaked to advance the security state.
Sullivan paints a picture that comes across as naive: our allies will line up for American “digital infrastructure” after U.S. taxpayers subsidize tech exports. The United States will lead the world in setting “democratic” AI standards even as we use trade policy to benefit Silicon Valley at the expense of our sovereignty, and our allies’. And our clean energy plan will be based on the products that concern the Pentagon the most, so that the purpose of these taxpayer expenditures is not a just transition, but an updated military-industrial complex that allows us to control defense supply chains.
The tech discussion in the article may be the most unnerving part because it rests on assumptions that just don’t hold. The article operates in a world in which the tech oligarchs aren’t seen as Bond villains. This is a big miss, since even Larry Summers’ former speechwriter has invoked the comparison.
Democratic values? Say what? The tech bros, who have captured every branch of the U.S. government, have made it clear that they have no interest in democratic values; we as the United States are unable to regulate them. The most trusted American spokesman is Pope Leo, who has strong views on tech and inequality; one of the tech titans just suggested that he’s the Antichrist. The Pope’s flock numbers more than a billion people, all over the world. If I were looking to build allied relationships, I’d “lean in” to Pope Leo and not so much the other guy.
In truth, we should have learned our lesson during the financial crisis: neoliberalism begets crony capitalism. It’s not too late to learn that lesson now. That means separating what’s in the American national interest from what’s in the multinational corporate interest and not taking orders from the latter under the theory that it advances the former. It’s the only way to have a chance of occupying any kind of “high ground” on tech or anything else.
Politico: White House distances itself from tighter AI regulation – John Sakellariadis, Cheyenne Haslett, Dasha Burns and Aaron Mak
Senior White House officials are trying to soothe industry concerns that the administration could require tech companies to submit their advanced artificial intelligence models for federal vetting before releasing them to the public.
A day after one top White House economic adviser publicly confirmed that such a review was under discussion — likening it Wednesday to the Food and Drug Administration’s yearslong testing of prescription drugs — aides to President Donald Trump were sending a different message: Not so fast.
“There’s one or two people who are very intent on government regulations, but they’re sort of the minority of the bunch,” said one senior White House official. This person, like others in this report, was granted anonymity to describe sensitive policy discussions.
The back-and-forth messaging comes as tech industry officials anxiously await an executive order spelling out how the administration plans to prevent powerful new AI models from being misused to launch cyberattacks or even develop bioweapons.
POLITICO reported Tuesday that the White House is eyeing a vetting system that could require AI giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google to go through the government before releasing new models.
TPP: Congress’s New Privacy Bill Is Built on Empty Promises – Eric Null
After more than a year since originally seeking comment on a federal privacy framework, House Energy & Commerce Republicans have introduced their draft legislation, the SECURE Data Act, expressing the agreement among Republicans on their preferred approach to privacy. Unfortunately, this draft is a major step back in the privacy debate given the progress made in prior federal privacy bills. Without significant improvements, the Act would fail to protect peoples’ privacy while giving companies a free pass to continue engaging in the same data practices consumers have grown to hate.
CBS: Congress passes another short-term FISA extension, hours before deadline – Stefan Becket
The House and Senate on Thursday passed a temporary extension of a key surveillance authority that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreigners without a warrant, buying lawmakers more time to negotiate amid a back-and-forth over the expiring program.
The program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is set to expire at 12 a.m. Friday without an extension by both chambers. The Trump administration and members of both parties in Congress argue that Section 702 is a key national security tool, and that its lapse would leave intelligence agencies in the dark about threats around the world.
LATIN AMERICA
TWN: Brazil flags reversal of Geneva texts at MC14, raises integrity concerns – D Ravi Kanth
Brazil on 7 May seemingly presented a sharp conclusion of how the Minister- Facilitator processes at the failed World Trade Organization’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14) in Yaounde, Cameroon, in March drastically altered the texts dispatched from Geneva on WTO reform and agriculture, raising serious concerns about the integrity of the conduct of MC14, said people familiar with the development.
The Brazilian trade envoy to the WTO, Ambassador Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, is understood to have said that the shape of the Geneva texts was completely altered at MC14, suggesting that the way the six Minister- Facilitators conducted the process was opaque and seemed fluid, said people familiar with the GC proceedings.
On WTO reform, the Brazilian trade envoy appears to have said that three key issues – the role of industrial policy, development flexibility for developing countries, and emerging agricultural trade issues – were apparently excluded from the draft Minister-Facilitators’ texts on WTO reform, said people familiar with the development.
In the face of the rather disconcerting developments at MC14, Brazil was apparently left without any option, the Brazilian trade envoy seems to have said.
Against this backdrop, Brazil was only left with the option of agreeing to a two-year moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, which has been the practice adopted for the past 30 years, Brazil argued, according to participants familiar with the development.
Govt.ofPeru: Joint Ministerial Statement on Costa Rica’s Accession Process to the CPTPP
Ministers of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam, Parties of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Costa Rica welcomed the substantial conclusion of the negotiations for the accession of Costa Rica to the CPTPP.
The Accession Working Group (AWG) and Costa Rica confirmed the means by which Costa Rica will comply with the existing rules contained in the CPTPP. The AWG also confirmed that Costa Rica has provided commercially meaningful market access offers of the highest standard on goods, services, investment, financial services, government procurement, state-owned enterprises and temporary entry for business persons. The CPTPP Parties have confirmed or submitted, respectively, their market access commitments to Costa Rica.
Politico: The EU-Mercosur deal takes effect — but the fight over it goes on – Camille Gijs and Koen Verhelst
Large parts of the EU’s mega trade deal with the Latin American Mercosur bloc finally kicked in Friday, but the political fight over it continues.
Negotiations started in 1999 and have been marked by repeated setbacks, leaving officials in Brussels wondering whether the deal to create a 720-million-person free-trade area would ever take effect.
The European Commission is provisionally applying the trade part of a broader pact with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Final ratification of the agreement will take a while longer, however, after the European Parliament voted to send it for legal review to the EU’s highest court.
