GLOBAL

PC: Trump’s Trade Report Doubles Down on Big Tech’s Global Agenda

The U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) latest National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report, published earlier this year, continues and doubles down on its targeting of critical public interest regulations related to safety in the digital economy, climate policy, environmental protection, public health, and more. This map and accompanying analysis of digital policies targeted in the 2026 NTE report reveal once again that Trump’s “Big Tech First” trade agenda continues to accelerate.

The map below visualizes the hundreds of digital policies targeted by the report in 76 countries — significantly more policies and countries targeted than last year’s report, which targeted digital regulations in 65 countries. The map also links the policy areas targeted in the NTE report to the demands made by tech industry lobby groups in their comments to the USTR.

The new map of the 2026 NTE report reveals that the corporations have indeed been successful in having their interests blessed as U.S. government policy objectives. The new NTE Report 2026 (once again) targets hundreds of digital policies in 76 jurisdictions, a significant increase in the number of policies being targeted compared to last year’s report (which targeted digital policies in 65 jurisdictions).

DigitalDefenders: Manifiesto Por una regulación urgente del entorno digital en el marco de la revisión del T-MEC

El Capítulo 19 del Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC), correspondiente al rubro “Comercio Digital”, contiene aspectos y omisiones que vulneran severamente la seguridad e integridad de las y los usuarios de plataformas sociodigitales al anteponer los intereses y objetivos comerciales por encima de los derechos fundamentales de las ciudadanías.

Esto se debe a que el T-MEC no tiene una disposición expresa que indique o reitere que las empresas propietarias y gestoras de las plataformas tecnológicas se sometan a la jurisdicción de aquellos países en los que hacen negocios y donde residen sus consumidores, creadores de contenido, representantes e inversionistas, por lo que, tal como está redactado actualmente, el Tratado contribuye a la falta de transparencia y a la dificultad para auditar que las empresas respeten la seguridad de las y los usuarios (Artículo 19.12). Asimismo, el T-MEC dificulta que las instituciones de impartición de justicia de diferentes Estados soliciten y accedan ágilmente a materiales multimedia o bases de datos que puedan servir como evidencia para perseguir delitos y salvaguardar a víctimas de violencia, lo cual entorpece e imposibilita los debidos procesos (Artículo 19.16). Finalmente, el acuerdo comercial deslinda a las plataformas de responsabilidad por los contenidos que se exhiben y circulan en sus interfaces, señalando que estas publicaciones reflejan las ideas de terceros, y minimizando el papel que juegan los efectos de la tecnología en la vida de las personas, a través de algoritmos y pautas publicitarias que promueven y amplifican discursos de actores o grupos antagónicos a la pluralidad, el diálogo y el bienestar común (Artículo 19.17).

TheGuardian: Social media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdown – Ashifa Kassam

As a host of countries move to rein in social media use by children, could this be technology’s big tobacco moment?

When Australia launched its ban on social media for children under the age of 16 in December, its global impact remained to be seen. The world watched with keen interest as the country adopted the most far-reaching ban yet, amid a global mix of incredulity, admiration and – among some – a staunch belief that many children would find a way to circumvent it.

Months later, it became clear that Australia’s efforts were the start of a global reckoning; in March, Indonesia began blocking children under the age of 16 from accessing most social media and Malaysia followed suit this month. Last week Britain announced its own ban, which it plans to have in place by early 2027.

VanderbiltPolicyAccelerator: Worker’s Data Should Not be a Business Asset – Stephanie T Nguyen

Workplace surveillance is now the default infrastructure across many modern employment systems. A recent bossware investigation I led highlights that monitoring platforms publicly cite clients including Dunkin Donuts, Goldfish Swim School, AnytimeFitness, ACE Hardware, and Comfort Inn.1 From productivity trackers to location monitoring to AI scoring systems that claim to predict “engagement” or “efficiency,” workers at places like these have no choice, agency, or even visibility into this data, how it is collected, who it is shared with, and how it is used to harm them – including lowering pay, job loss, and more.2

These principles are meant to be included in a worker surveillance bill to address the data abuses surfaced in our investigation. Policymakers should ban or restrict [worker data]3 from boosting surveillance sludge features – worker tracking features that impose excessive data collection, processing, use, and monetization on workers to perform the work but create strong incentives for abuse and misuse. Such surveillance practices can violate core values of worker dignity and autonomy by treating workers as continuously monitored data sources rather than as people entitled to privacy, agency, and fair working conditions.

ASIA

GlobalAffairsLab: Global Affairs Lab Says South Korea’s Digital Regulations Reflect Evolving International Trade Standards

Global Affairs Lab, an international affairs research institute, released an analysis examining South Korea’s recent digital platform regulations and their broader implications for international trade and global technology governance.

According to the assessment released by Global Affairs Lab, South Korea’s regulatory approach is not an isolated policy but rather aligns with a broader global shift toward digital platform accountability. The institute further notes that the core logic of these regulations reflects the standards established by the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, or DMA, and is consistent with recent antitrust enforcement trends in the United States.

Against this backdrop, framing these domestic accountability measures as localized trade friction may overlook the coordinated international effort to update digital governance frameworks. As digital platforms increasingly function as critical public infrastructure, governments worldwide are seeking to balance market openness with regulatory oversight to protect data privacy and digital rights.

In this context, Global Affairs Lab assesses that South Korea’s implementation of digital regulations represents a strategic alignment with global standards. By applying consistent and non-discriminatory rules to large technology companies, both domestic and foreign, the approach supports the long-term development of a predictable, transparent and fair playing field in the digital trade ecosystem.

AFRICA

ProPublica: “Digital Colonialism”: U.S. Demands to Access Africans’ Data Raise Privacy, Sovereignty Concerns – Sharon Lerner and Anna Maria Barry-Jester

Reporting Highlights

• Strings Attached: U.S. officials are demanding access to the health data of millions of Africans as a condition of giving billions of dollars in lifesaving aid to African countries.
• Privacy Concerns: Experts said the deals are vague and lack standard language to guard personal data from being exposed, misused or commercialized without people’s consent.
• America First: The U.S. said it needs access to the data to keep people safe and that it will be anonymized. The deals are part of a plan to use aid to make America “more prosperous.”

EUROPE

NYPost: Trump warns France in exclusive interview with The Post: Kill tech tax or face 100% wine tariffs: ‘I have no choice’ – James Franey

President Trump warned that France is at risk of a fresh trade war with America — declaring in an exclusive interview with The Post that unless Paris axes its digital tax on American tech giants, the US will “have no choice” but to slap 100% tariffs on French wines.

Trump said he gave the blunt warning directly to outgoing French President Emmanuel Macron, demanding he ditch the 3% tech levy or face devastating duties in the American market, which accounts for a fifth of the French wine industry’s global sales — worth more than $2 billion annually.

Reuters: Macron maintains France will not bend to Trump over digital tax- John Irish and Sybille de La Hamaide

President Emmanuel Macron said France would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump and scrap its digital ​tax on U.S. tech giants, hours before the two meet at a summit on Monday.

Before ‌setting off for the G7 leaders summit, which Macron is hosting on the shores of Lake Geneva, Trump warned that the U.S. would “have no choice” but to apply 100% tariffs on French wine unless Paris eliminated its digital tax.

EUCommission: Strengthening Europe’s tech sovereignty

The European Commission has put forward the European technological sovereignty package, a set of measures to strengthen the EU’s capacity in semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and open source. It will help Europe become a leader in AI, strengthen its digital autonomy, and help build a more sustainable digital future.

The package focuses on four key areas

• securing the semiconductor base for Europe’s AI ambition – the chips act 2.0 will help build capacity in cutting-edge semiconductor technologies, boost supply and demand, and support investment
• unlocking the potential of Europe’s cloud and AI capacity – the cloud and AI development act will support research and innovation in cutting-edge and sustainable technologies, streamline conditions for deploying datacentres across the EU, and introduce a single EU-wide framework to assess cloud and AI sovereignty
• strengthening digital autonomy through open source – the open source strategy will scale up open source alternatives in priority areas, invest in skills, start-ups and digital infrastructure, and support greater use of open source in public administrations
• digitalising Europe’s energy system, while ensuring sustainable digitalisation – the strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in the energy sector will ensure data centres are integrated into our energy system, accelerate the deployment of digital and AI solutions, and build sovereign and secure AI models for the energy sector

Politico: EU says Amazon, Microsoft cloud services should fall under digital dominance rules

The European Commission has preliminarily concluded that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should fall under the EU’s digital dominance rules, in a move that extends Europe’s most powerful tech regulation into cloud infrastructure for the first time.

The decision, which follows a market investigation launched last November, marks an expansion of the Digital Markets Act — which has so far covered consumer-facing platforms, app stores and search engines — into the €220 billion European market for cloud computing services.

Politico: How Trump supercharged the EU’s tech independence push – Mathieu Pollet

Donald Trump may have finally done what years of warnings from Paris and Brussels could not: Convince Europe’s free-market holdouts that relying on American technology is a vulnerability.

On Wednesday, the European Commission is set to unveil its so-called tech sovereignty package aimed at reducing reliance on foreign firms. While early drafts obtained by POLITICO suggest Brussels will shy away from forcing a clean break with foreign tech, the momentum behind the push for digital independence is now impossible to ignore.

The package is a culmination of rising unease with the continent’s dependence on American technology, which underlies everything from email communication, the storage and processing of public and private data and many of the tools powering government services.

But the package also exposes the limits of Europe’s newfound consensus. While governments increasingly agree that strategic dependencies pose a risk, they remain split over the right remedy.

Rather than forcing a break with U.S. providers, drafts obtained by POLITICO suggest the Commission will focus on mobilizing private investors, promoting open source alternatives and incentivizing domestic computer chip manufacturing.

Under the proposal, which will now go to national governments and the European Parliament for negotiations, the Commission will require governments to assess potential vulnerabilities. It will also have the power to decide whether a country, such as the U.S., can be trusted to provide technology for the most sensitive sectors of the European economy, two people briefed with the latest details told POLITICO.

But national governments will be largely left to determine how to act to protect themselves from foreign vulnerabilities, leaving them to weigh the risk of antagonizing Washington.

Politico: Germany pushes back on US attack over streaming law – Milena Wälde

Germany on Friday rejected Washington’s accusations that its proposed streaming investment law breaches the newly minted EU-U.S. Turnberry trade pact, insisting it is a cultural policy tool not a digital trade barrier.

The rebuttal came a day after U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer blasted legislation approved by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet, and said the proposal treated American companies “like a piggy bank for pet, protectionist projects.”

The draft law would require streamers and broadcasters to invest at least 8 percent of their annual German revenue into German and European film and television production, or face financial penalties.

France already requires major streamers to invest at least 20 percent of local revenue into French and European productions, while Italy set its quota at 16 percent in 2024. Both operate under the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which allows member countries to require platforms to financially support European works, and mandates at least 30 percent of on-demand catalogs consist of European content.

TheGuardian: European parliament finally approves Trump tariff deal – Lisa O’Carroll

The European parliament has given its final approval to implement last July’s tariff agreement with Donald Trump.

Facing a threat of increased tariffs if the deal was not sanctioned by 4 July, MEPs agreed to approve the deal, with two main provisos.

The first is a “sunset clause” which will mean the deal expires on 31 December 2029 unless it is renewed.

The second sets out “clear conditions” for tariff reductions on products containing some steel and aluminium, tariffs that Trump has imposed under national security laws rather than the tariff regime he instituted on “liberation day” last April.

Under the deal the US applies 15% on most EU exports, while the EU has cut import duties on some US goods, some agricultural products and a wide range of seafood to 0%.

NORTH AMERICA

NYTimes: Trump Threatens to Impose 100% Tariff on European Countries Over Tech Taxes – Ana Swanson and Jeanna Smialek

President Trump threatened to scrap a just-finalized trade deal with the European Union on Friday, saying that any country that levies a digital services tax would be hit immediately with a 100 percent tariff on all exports to the United States.

Mr. Trump seized on the fact that several European countries are discussing imposing such taxes. Those taxes would apply to the revenue that major U.S. tech firms earn in Europe. If they choose to proceed, the United States would “immediately” impose a 100 percent tariff on them, he said.

“This TARIFF will supersede Trade Deals made with the Country, whether implemented, signed, or not,” he wrote on Truth Social.

CCPA: Will CanCon die with the Online Streaming Act? – Garry Neil

Last week, with trade negotiations with the U.S. as a backdrop, the federal government announced it would roll back the chief function of the 2023 Online Streaming Act: the requirement that streaming companies finance the production of Canadian content. By doing so, the federal government has capitulated to U.S. pressure and gutted the cultural exemption in Canada’s trade and investment agreements.

Most of Canada’s trade agreements have so-called “cultural exemption” clauses. The reasoning is simple: given the dominance of U.S. and other foreign cultural works, Canada must have policies and programs to encourage the creation, production and distribution of Canadian stories, music, arts and culture, even if those policies run counter to the principles of absolute free trade.

Canada’s policies are not exclusionary: Canadians continue to enjoy cultural expressions from everywhere. But we must ensure that, in the plethora of cultural production, high-quality Canadian choices are available, in every genre. As some of our existing policies would otherwise be contrary to trade obligations—particularly the so-called “most-favoured nation” provisions, which mandate equal treatment of goods regardless of their country of origin. Canada has fought to secure and maintain a cultural exemption in virtually every trade and investment agreement.

On June 3, the government issued a policy direction to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the body which regulates broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada. The government ordered the CRTC to remove its pending requirement for streaming services (primarily U.S.) to contribute between five and 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content. While the CRTC is an arms-length agency, it is likely to comply with the policy direction. Concurrently, the government announced it would provide $600 million annually to support Canadian music and audiovisual productions, including Indigenous, French, and equity-deserving communities. The government argues the funding support is essentially equivalent to the levy on steaming services.

TheCenterSquare: Greer, Carr commended for seeking fairness in EU treatment of US tech firms – Tate Rosentreter

Industry groups continue to pressure the U.S. administration to coerce the EU to relax its digital economy regulations, repeating the same old tropes about EU laws such as the Digital Markets Act being “unfair” to U.S. companies. industry groups are increasingly concerned about discussions of “digital sovereignty” in EU and are seeking to cut developing initiatives off early.

Reuters: Meta lobbies Congress for protection from child-harm lawsuits – Jody Godoy

Meta Platforms has lobbied the U.S. Congress for legal immunity from child-harm claims tied to ‌social media products such as Instagram, as it faces thousands of lawsuits from young users and their families, according to a source familiar with the matter and proposed legislative language reviewed by Reuters.

If adopted by lawmakers and passed into law as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) under consideration in the U.S. Senate, such a provision could ​undermine thousands of lawsuits against Meta and other online platforms over harms to children. Meta and Google’s YouTube face a combined $6 million ​in damages after they lost the first case at trial early this year.

While legislators have given no indication of ⁠adopting the language, the lobbying effort shows the kind of legal protections Meta is seeking amid the biggest attempt to regulate online platforms in the ​U.S. since the 1990s.

The proposed language reviewed by Reuters would make online companies “immune from suit or liability under state law with respect to all claims ​for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the safety or privacy of individuals under the age of eighteen online or otherwise related to the provisions” of KOSA. The provision appears alongside language that would preempt state laws on children’s online safety and privacy.

Politico: Trump’s Anthropic restrictions may be illegal – Ari Hawkins

President Donald Trump’s action cutting off foreign access to Anthropic’s most powerful AI models is stretching the legal limits of government control on tech exports. It’s a warning for other AI companies.

The administration is using export controls — rules that restrict the transfer of sensitive technologies to foreign parties — to bar Anthropic from allowing its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models to be used by foreign nationals, including those inside the United States, without a license. The directive prompted the company to disable access to the service on Friday.

The Commerce Department, which oversees export control rules, has only applied those restrictions to Anthropic’s models, and has not formalized the rule by publishing it in the Federal Register. But if left unchallenged, the maneuver could embolden the agency to impose the same restrictions on high-end models across the entire AI industry, allowing them to potentially choke off access for any foreign person who uses models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

The decision to slap export controls on Anthropic rests on authorities granted under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, which established a formal licensing system requiring American companies to seek government approval before transferring a broad range of sensitive technologies to foreign parties. The law gave Commerce sweeping authority to designate which technologies require a license, a list that has since grown to include certain AI-related software and systems.

But it’s not clear if the law gives the federal government the authority to regulate whether a foreign person can simply log in and use an American AI model.

WashingtonPost: Lawmakers demand answers on the administration’s Anthropic restrictions – Ian Duncan

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers demanded answers from the Trump administration about why it imposed sweeping restrictions on Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence models — and whether rival tech companies should expect similar treatment.

“While this action concerned a single AI model, it appears to represent a significant new application of export control authorities to advanced AI systems and therefore raises important questions for the broader U.S. AI ecosystem, American competitiveness, and the future development and deployment of frontier AI technologies,” they wrote in the letter sent Thursday.

The Commerce Department placed export controls on Anthropic’s newest AI models, named Mythos and Fable, last week, essentially forcing them offline. But the government has provided no official explanation for a move that has shaken trust around the world that topflight American AI systems can be depended upon.

Politico: Anticipating AI job doom – Matt Friendman

Artificial intelligence may or may not be coming for your job. But some lawmakers, including state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, don’t want to wait to see if that happens.

Zwicker this week introduced the New Jersey Artificial Intelligence Workforce Transition Act, the centerpiece of which is a $188 million account to pay for employee retaining, extended unemployment insurance and pay gap insurance for laid off workers displaced by AI. As written, it would last five years.

It also would fine companies that give workers less than 90 days’ notice that they’re being replaced by AI and create tax incentives for companies that shift workers whose tasks have been replaced by AI into other roles and hire laid off New Jerseyans.

It’s not the only proposal in New Jersey that seeks to deal with AI job disruptions, but it appears to be the most comprehensive one.

USTR: USTR Announces Initiation of Section 301 Investigation of Germany’s Persistent Underpayment for Innovative Pharmaceutical Products

Today, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer initiated an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 against Germany. This investigation will seek to determine whether persistent underpayment for innovative pharmaceutical products by Germany is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. This investigation follows months of meaningful discussions with our German partners in an effort to resolve this issue.

“President Trump has made clear that American patients should not be shouldering a disproportionate share of global pharmaceutical research and development,” said Ambassador Greer. “I am particularly concerned with news that Germany is fast-tracking legislation that would further reduce its spending on innovative pharmaceuticals. This is a serious step backwards at a time when our trading partners need to step up and start paying their fair share to fund innovative pharmaceutical research and development. We believe that the United States and Germany can find a path forward that expands access to the most innovative drugs for the German people while ensuring fair reimbursement for the pharmaceuticals made by American workers.”

LATIN AMERICA

AlJazeera: Lula says Brazil cannot ‘accept treatment’ after new US tariffs proposed

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has decried newly proposed United States tariffs, saying he could “not accept the treatment” his country had received.

The rebuke on Wednesday came a day after the administration of US President Donald Trump announced the 25 percent tariff on certain Brazilian imports, appearing to roll back an emerging detente between the two countries.

On Wednesday, Lula said he was surprised by the newly proposed tariffs, adding that US-Brazil trade talks were still ongoing. He added that Brazil still wanted to build institutional relations with the US but would seek other trade partners if needed.

FolhaDeSaoPaolo: Brasil estuda concessões comerciais para tentar evitar tarifa de 25% pelos EUA

O Brasil estuda fazer concessões comerciais aos Estados Unidos para tentar evitar a aplicação de uma tarifa de 25% sobre produtos brasileiros.

Segundo uma fonte do governo brasileiro, as negociações envolvem o Escritório do Representante Comercial dos EUA (USTR, na sigla em inglês) e buscam um pacote de contrapartidas que permita ao governo americano aliviar a medida. O desfecho, porém, está longe de garantido.

O governo brasileiro afirma estar disposto a ceder em determinadas áreas comerciais, mas descarta qualquer negociação fora do âmbito estritamente tarifário. Temas como o Pix, decisões do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal) ou questões políticas internas não estão sobre a mesa. A avaliação brasileira é que ainda há espaço para avançar até o prazo limite, mas sem garantias.