GLOBAL
TWN: India confronts DG & ECA participants ahead of crucial GC meet – D Ravi Kanth
Ahead of a crucial World Trade Organization General Council (GC) meeting on 14-15 July, India has launched a rigorous legal and institutional challenge against the proponents of the controversial "Agreement on Electronic Commerce" (ECA) and the WTO Director-General for acting as a depository for the agreement’s instruments of acceptance – an apparent violation of the Marrakesh Agreement that established the WTO in 1995.
In a sharply worded document (WT/GC/W/1004), titled "Questions regarding interim arrangements of the Agreement on Electronic Commerce," India has confronted the 66 proponents who announced the agreement on the margins of the WTO’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14) in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Reuters: Twenty-nine countries sign agreement to establish global AI cooperation body
Twenty-nine countries on Thursday signed an agreement to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization, an intergovernmental body China says aims to promote international cooperation and global governance in artificial intelligence.
Representatives from the 29 countries, including Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela, as well as 10 African and 12 Asian countries, signed the agreement as founding members.
ASIA
Reuters: An emboldened India holds out for better terms in US trade talks – Shivangi Acharya, Manoj Kumar and Trevor Hunnicutt
India and the U.S. did not reach a consensus on a trade agreement in recent talks, with New Delhi holding out for a better deal as Prime Minister Narendra Modi draws confidence from new trading partners, eased economic risks and political gains at home, officials and analysts said.
After months of talks, the two nations failed to finalise an interim trade agreement during U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s visit to New Delhi last month, despite expectations from both sides that a limited deal was within reach.
There was no consensus because Washington did not offer assurances on New Delhi’s key demands: a tariff advantage over competitors such as China and no new U.S. levies after the deal, said an Indian government official aware of the talks.
AFRICA
EcofinAgency: Kenya Seeks Bigger Share of AI Economy With Local Infrastructure Push – Cynthia Ebot Takang
Kenya has opened public consultations on a draft AI policy that seeks to expand domestic computing infrastructure, support local AI developers and strengthen digital sovereignty. The framework proposes a Sovereign Cloud Strategy, an AI Innovation Fund, a National AI Compute Access Programme and procurement preferences for locally developed AI solutions. The policy reflects Kenya’s ambition to capture more value from the AI economy by building local infrastructure rather than relying primarily on foreign technology providers.
iAfrica: Kenya Meets US Embassy and AmCham Delegation on AI Cooperation and Data Governance Alignment
Kenya is looking to deepen its cooperation with the United States on artificial intelligence and digital transformation, with recent talks in Nairobi centered on technology investment, data governance and the responsible development of AI.
The Department for ICT and the Digital Economy hosted a US delegation drawn from the American Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce to examine avenues for expanded bilateral cooperation. The talks covered increasing US technology investment in Kenya, strengthening trusted data governance to support economic development and digital trade, and aligning Kenya’s policy and regulatory frameworks with internationally recognized standards — a move Kenya’s side argued would improve interoperability, safeguard cross-border data flows and lift investor confidence.
EUROPE
TheTimes: The digital trade revolution is leaving small businesses behind – Richard Tyler
Businesses meant to benefit from government legislation to digitise trade documents have been “untouched” by the changes, research for the government suggests.
While large companies and shipping carriers have taken advantage of the Electronic Trade Documents Act of 2023 to save money by shifting some transactions from paper to digital formats, smaller exporters have been left behind.
This is despite small and medium-sized businesses having been seen as the primary “beneficiaries of the reforms”, with reduced courier fees and administrative costs, as well as improved access to trade finance among the promised rewards.
Politico: EU fines Google €890M for breaching Big Tech rulebook – Jacob Parry and Mathieu Pollet
The EU fined Google €890 million on Thursday and ordered the U.S. internet giant to overhaul how it ranks rivals in search results and how it polices its app store, as it concluded two investigations into whether the company had breached the bloc’s flagship Big Tech law.
Google becomes the third company to face significant fines under the EU’s three-year-old Digital Markets Act, a rulebook meant to fast-track investigations into dominant tech platforms that has been denounced by Washington as discriminatory because most of the companies covered by it are American.
EUReporter: Can digital sovereignty survive an open trading system? – Konstantinos Komaitis
Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda is born of a legitimate strategic concern: the continent has become dangerously dependent on foreign technologies at precisely the moment tech has become inseparable from geopolitical power. In Brussels, reducing reliance on non-European cloud providers and semiconductor supply chains is no longer framed as industrial policy but as a matter of economic security.
Brussels is often critiqued for being a ‘regulatory superpower’ that lacks the industrial muscle to back up its mandates. There is a valid urgency to move beyond rule-making and toward building a competitive European ‘sovereign stack’, from cloud architectures to semiconductor foundries. The European Commission’s recently proposed Tech Sovereignty Package, reflects this shift in thinking. Rather than focusing solely on regulation, Brussels is now trying to build industrial capacity, secure strategic technologies and create the conditions for European alternatives to emerge in areas such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The challenge will be ensuring that sovereignty does not become synonymous with economic separation.
NORTH AMERICA
USTR: Ambassador Greer Issues Statement on the European Union Creating Uncertainty in our Transatlantic Trade Relationship
Today, Ambassador Greer issued a statement regarding the European Union’s recent actions that create uncertainty in the Turnberry Agreement.
“Today, the European Commission announced that it will fine Google nearly $1 billion, the latest in an increasingly aggressive approach targeting U.S. technology firms. This is in addition to two recent actions by the Commission under the Digital Markets Act that target Google’s Android operating system and Search services that pose serious risks for the privacy and security of users, represent a de facto forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, and impose unreasonable financial penalties. The EU’s various fines of Google alone add up to over 2 percent of the EU’s budget—a larger ‘contribution’ to the budget than many EU member states. Add in the recent announcement of the largest ever state-backed loan to Airbus, and it becomes clear that the EU continues to target the most competitive U.S. companies,” said Ambassador Greer.
BBC: Trump vows to investigate EU over fining of US tech companies – Kali Hays
Donald Trump says the US will launch an investigation into the European Union and threatened a fresh tariff over fines handed to some of the biggest American tech companies.
It comes days after the European Commission fined Google €890m ($1bn) for operating in a way that squeezed out competitors to its services.
In a post to Truth Social, which Trump owns, the US president said the EU would pay a “very big price” over how it had treated Google, along with other major US tech companies Apple, Meta, and Amazon, which have also been investigated.
Trump said any fines should be “entirely reversed” and that he was initiating a trade investigation of the EU while considering “a substantial TARIFF”.
He added that the US would “immediately initiate a 301 investigation” over European regulators’ alleged practice of “robbing American companies and, in turn, the American taxpayer”.
Politico: Trump threatens new tariffs against EU over Google fine – Gregory Svirnovskiy
President Donald Trump floated plans Friday to place a “substantial” new tariff on the European Union, accusing the bloc of “robbing” American companies and pledging to initiate a trade investigation after the EU fined Google for illegal trade practices.
The president’s threat came just a day after U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer warned that the EU’s action against Google — two fines totaling over $1 billion — could imperil the bloc’s relationship with the White House.
At risk: the Turnberry deal, which Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed last fall, that capped U.S. tariffs on EU exports at 15 percent.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is the agency responsible for launching the Section 301 trade investigation, which the president promised in his post to “immediately initiate.” A spokesperson for USTR did not immediately respond to questions about such an investigation and if or when they plan to announce it.
JanSchakowsky: Schakowsky, Warren Press Trump Admin on Whether Big Tech Lobbyists Are Scheming to Use Major Trade Deal to Stop Regulation
U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and opened a new investigation into whether Big Tech companies are lobbying to avoid new AI rules using the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). In a new letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, the lawmakers raised concerns that Big Tech trade associations may be trying to use the USMCA to prevent the U.S., Mexico, and Canada from developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) standards and holding them accountable for hurting consumers.
“U.S. trade policy should focus on creating jobs, strengthening supply chains, and lowering costs for American families — not advancing the interests of Big Tech CEOs by letting their companies run amok,” wrote the lawmakers.
Now, according to an analysis by Public Citizen, Big Tech trade associations — representing companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook — are lobbying to keep harmful rules and further prevent the governments of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada from regulating the digital ecosystem, including AI. If Big Tech is successful, they could even circumvent state laws that limit exports of sensitive personal data or guarantee protections to allow AI models to be trained on copyrighted materials.
“(T)his digital trade strategy would limit — or even potentially bar — federal and state governments’ ability to enact or enforce domestic policies to counter Big Tech’s influence and protect consumers from harm,” noted the lawmakers.
BloombergTax: US Tariff Threat Is an Ill-Advised Digital Services Tax Reaction – Andrew Leahey
President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on countries with digital services taxes is an attempt to use consumer-funded trade pain to shield big tech from foreign tax bills, rather than a defense of the US tax system. It would be better to move toward a coherent multilateral framework that trades repeal of unilateral DSTs for clear rules on where digital profits can be taxed.
A foreign government taxes the domestic digital revenue of companies such as Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Apple Inc., or Amazon.com Inc. The US response apparently is to threaten tariffs on that country’s unrelated goods until the tax goes away. The logic is that if Google must pay France a modest tax on digital revenue, someone in Cleveland may need to pay more for their champagne. That reasoning is dubious.
That’s what makes the tariff proposal so odd as a tax policy response. The administration isn’t threatening to tax the companies that benefit from the retaliation. They’re threatening to impose pain on unrelated domestic participants in the market to force foreign governments to stop taxing big tech.
No one is literally cutting Meta a reimbursement check, but the effect is similar. US consumers and importers become the leverage used to protect Silicon Valley from foreign tax exposure.
Politico: Canada made trade concessions. Trump’s trade team doesn’t see them as such – Zi Ann Lum
Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing growing criticism at home over stalled U.S.-Canada trade talks, and fresh comments from the Trump administration suggest his concessions have done little to move Washington.
There hasn’t been “a lot” of movement in bilateral negotiations with Canada, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday, despite Carney’s government caving on its Digital Services Tax to keep talks going.
“They had an Online Streaming Act where they wanted to force American companies to fund Canadian companies that they rolled back,” Greer said. “I’m glad they did that, but they don’t really get credit for doing something bad and then undoing it.”
Axios: Exclusive: Trade Rep. Greer pushes Europe to ease tech regulation – Josephine Walker
Europe must take “concrete actions” to rein in its enforcement of laws that disproportionately hit American tech companies, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said at Axios House D.C. on Tuesday.
“People differ on how big tech should be treated,” Greer told Axios’ Mike Allen on Tuesday. “What I can tell you is we’re not going to let Europe control the global regulation of our companies, which generally give a lot of free services to consumers and provide a lot of consumer welfare.” “So, whatever challenges we may have with these companies, and they are real, and we want to cover them, we’re just not going to let Europe be the arbiter.”
Reuters: US lawmakers urge Trump to act against EU tech rules, suggest trade probes – Foo Yun Chee
A group of 25 U.S. lawmakers has written to U.S. President Donald Trump urging him to act against Europe’s tech rules including launching trade investigations, saying EU digital policies unfairly target U.S. Big Tech.
“We write to bring to your attention the many ways the EU continues to pursue anti-competitive acts, policies, and practices as a tool of economic extraction and regulatory coercion against American firms and to encourage your administration to take decisive action before the EU further entrenches this anti-American regime,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
The European Commission denied discriminating against U.S. companies.
“When it comes to our rules, the EU has the sovereign right to regulate economic activities on its territory,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.
Yahoo: New York imposes first moratorium on data centers – Morgan Chalfant
New York will become the first US state to impose a moratorium on new data centers today, a sign of the growing blowback to the AI boom.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a centrist Democrat, is signing an executive order pausing permitting for hyperscaler data centers for a year, giving the state time to establish a regulatory framework to soften the impact on utility bills, the energy grid, and the environment.
LATIN AMERICA
WashingtonPost: Lula to Trump: ‘No one will defeat us through lies’ – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Besides being unfair, the new tariffs are a strategic mistake: They will harm the U.S. economy and the U.S. partnership with Brazil. Several U.S. industrial sectors depend on Brazilian inputs. Food, footwear, textiles, furniture, auto parts and many other products will become more expensive for U.S. consumers.
In the medium term, these tariffs will disrupt supply chains that are currently deeply integrated, and Brazilian companies will replace their U.S. suppliers with partners elsewhere.
President Trump’s claims against Brazil, attempting to justify tariffs, are unfounded. Freedom of expression is not a free pass for criminal activity on social media platforms — we will not give up on protecting our families and children from the greed of a handful of tech oligarchs. Our payment system, PIX, does not discriminate against U.S. companies and is an international benchmark for digital public infrastructure. The whole world knows that, starting in 2023, we began aggressively combating environmental crimes and drastically reducing deforestation across all Brazilian biomes.
Reuters: Brazil finance chief pledges reciprocity, not retaliation, after new U.S. tariffs
Brazil Finance Minister Dario Durigan said on Friday there were no grounds for discussing retaliation against Washington’s latest tariffs, promising instead to carefully evaluate reciprocal measures before their implementation.
“There are no grounds for talking about retaliation against the United States over the tariffs. What we are discussing is evaluating reciprocal measures,” Durigan told reporters.
Reuters: Brazil readies ‘tough’ response to new Trump tariffs, sources say – Lisandra Paraguassu
Brazil’s government convened top ministers on Thursday to prepare retaliatory measures against Washington’s latest tariffs, with options including curbs on U.S. audiovisual companies and suspension of pharmaceutical and agricultural patents, three sources told Reuters.
The measures under consideration are in line with Brazil’s reciprocity law, which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged his government would invoke after the Trump administration announced a 25% tariff on many Brazilian products on Wednesday in response to what it said were unfair trade practices by Brazil.
The planned response, targeting U.S. intellectual property rights and audiovisual sector interests rather than imports, would represent a new approach to trade retaliation designed to pressure Washington while shielding Brazilian consumers from higher prices.
According to another source, Brazil is expected to revisit countermeasures studied last year under the reciprocity law, including curbs on dividend and royalty remittances by U.S. audiovisual companies.
TheGuardian: The Guardian view on Brazil’s sovereignty: Trump turns autonomy into a trade offence
Last June, Brazil’s supreme court responded to the online lies that helped fuel Jair Bolsonaro’s failed far-right coup attempt in 2023. It ruled that social media platforms could be held liable for some users’ posts, forcing firms such as Elon Musk’s X and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to remove hate speech and anti-democratic content. A month later, Donald Trump proposed a 25% tariff on Brazilian imports, complaining that the judges had made US tech firms take down “political” material.
At a hearing held at the US International Trade Commission last week, an extraordinary platform was given to Mr Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio. He is the opposition candidate running to be president in this year’s election while his father serves a 27-year prison sentence. His message to Washington was that the US’s problem with his country’s unfair trade practices was down to the president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, who has clashed with Mr Trump.
The younger Bolsonaro asked for the US to stay its hand on tariffs until Brazil’s election in October, saying that he – unlike the “anti-American” Lula – may soon be in power. With the White House decision expected on Wednesday, it was an extraordinary act of chutzpah. He was not just lobbying against tariffs. He was auditioning to be Mr Trump’s preferred Brazilian president. Mr Bolsonaro is less charismatic than his father, but rooted in the same simplistic anti-leftism, punitive law and order policies and far-right culture wars.
