Today, the International Trade Administration (ITA) announced a series of new initiatives to advance U.S. competitiveness and trade in the digital economy. These initiatives will support policy advocacy in international engagements, provide tailored resources for U.S. businesses to leverage, and equip ITA’s digital attachés with applied experience to empower them to be stronger advocates for U.S. commercial interests in foreign markets and help strengthen U.S. leadership in the digital economy.
“With nearly 3 million U.S. jobs across nearly every industry and sector and over $500 billion dollars in digital services exports annually, trade is an indispensable factor to supporting growth in the digital economy,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets Arun Venkataraman. “At the International Trade Administration, we are committed to advancing the competitiveness of U.S. industry and ensuring a level playing field for U.S. businesses, large and small, in foreign markets, which is why we are taking further action to ensure that we are positioned to champion policies and opportunities to support U.S. businesses and ensure continued U.S. leadership in the digital economy.”
Building on historic work advancing U.S. technological leadership and strengthening the global digital policy environment, ITA leadership is directing efforts and allocating resources to ensure that trade in the digital economy is prioritized across ITA’s workstreams. To this end, ITA is ensuring its policy advocacy and commercial dialogues are modernized for the digital era; providing regular reporting on the digital economy business environment in key markets to inform and serve U.S. businesses; collaborating with organizations like the Business Council for International Understanding to equip digital attachés with specialized training; working with other Commerce bureaus to support export opportunities for small and medium-sized tech enterprises; and pursuing digital economy trade missions to help reduce barriers to trade in the digital economy.
These actions build on ITA’s longstanding efforts to deliver concrete, commercially meaningful outcomes that advance U.S. innovation and leadership in the digital economy. For example, these new efforts will reinforce ITA’s longstanding leadership in promoting cross-border data flows, including through the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the Global Cross Border Privacy Rules, and further support ITA’s partnership with other agencies in the Department of Commerce and across the U.S. Government to promote secure and trusted networks and strengthen innovation through the full deployment of Wi-Fi technologies.
Source: U.S. Competitiveness and Trade in the Digital Economy