[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1788 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1788

To make it a negotiating principle of the United States in negotiations 
  for bilateral, plurilateral, or multilateral agreements to seek the 
  inclusion of provisions that promote Internet-enabled commerce and 
                             digital trade.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 10, 2013

 Mr. Thune (for himself and Mr. Wyden) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To make it a negotiating principle of the United States in negotiations 
  for bilateral, plurilateral, or multilateral agreements to seek the 
  inclusion of provisions that promote Internet-enabled commerce and 
                             digital trade.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Trade Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Internet has become an unprecedented medium for 
        competition, trade, free expression, and access to information.
            (2) The Internet is a driver of the global economy and must 
        remain open, stable, and secure.
            (3) Trade in Internet-enabled services and transfers of 
        data and other digital information have become increasingly 
        critical drivers of the economic growth of the United States. 
        The United States International Trade Commission found in a 
        July 2013 report, entitled ``Digital Trade in the U.S. and 
        Global Economies, Part 1'', that ``U.S. exports of digitally 
        enabled services (one measure of international digital trade) 
        grew from $282.1 billion in 2007 to $356.1 billion in 2011, 
        with exports exceeding imports every year''.
            (4) The United States is the global leader in Internet-
        enabled platforms, networks, and services. Certain liability 
        protections for those entities under the law of the United 
        States, which promote innovation and creativity and allow for 
        cooperative efforts to address harmful activity, have been 
        critical to the growth of the Internet economy in the United 
        States.
            (5) According to McKinsey & Company, more than \3/4\ of the 
        value added by the Internet is in traditional industries.
            (6) Internet-enabled commerce and digital trade benefits 
        small- and medium-size enterprises by providing unparalleled 
        access to global markets.
            (7) Proposals have been put forward by some trading 
        partners of the United States to restrict the flow of lawful 
        information across borders. Those proposals would cause 
        increased government control over the Internet and could create 
        a fragmented Internet.
            (8) Localization barriers to trade are frequently used to 
        protect, favor, or stimulate domestic industries at the expense 
        of industries in other countries. Those localization 
        requirements harm the competitiveness of and end-users in the 
        United States.
            (9) Restrictive policies regarding the flow of information 
        across borders are nontariff barriers that are harmful to 
        innovation and economic advancement. Those policies impede 
        trade in digital products and services and constrain the 
        ability of United States companies from many sectors to 
        effectively operate across borders.
            (10) Cross-border data flows are critical to manufacturers, 
        institutions of higher education, hospitals, retailers, 
        financial services firms, laboratories, and many other 
        organizations that use the Internet to improve their 
        productivity and manage global networks of customers, 
        suppliers, researchers, and employees.
            (11) The free flow of information across borders provides 
        choices and reduces costs to consumers worldwide.
            (12) The position of the United States Government has been 
        and is to advocate for the free flow of information across 
        borders.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) agencies in the executive branch, including the Office 
        of the United States Trade Representative, should be staffed 
        with experts and leaders to fulfill the mission of promoting an 
        open, global Internet that facilitates commerce and digital 
        trade; and
            (2) private sector stakeholders should have the opportunity 
        to formally inform efforts of agencies in the executive branch 
        related to digital trade.

SEC. 3. NEGOTIATING PRINCIPLES FOR INTERNET-ENABLED COMMERCE AND 
              DIGITAL TRADE.

    It shall be a negotiating principle of the United States in 
negotiations for a bilateral, plurilateral, or multilateral agreement, 
and in multi-stakeholder fora, to seek the inclusion of binding and 
enforceable provisions that promote and enhance Internet-enabled 
commerce and digital trade, including provisions--
            (1) preventing or eliminating barriers to the movement of 
        electronic information across borders, including by encouraging 
        interoperability of data protection regimes and eliminating 
        barriers to accessing, processing, transferring, or storing 
        information;
            (2) ensuring transparency in measures affecting the free 
        flow of information within and across borders;
            (3) continuing the current practice of not imposing customs 
        duties on electronic transmissions;
            (4) prohibiting measures that condition market access or 
        other commercial benefits on localization of data, 
        infrastructure, or investment;
            (5) prohibiting any country from imposing measures that 
        require an entity to use computing infrastructure or services 
        in that country or otherwise require an entity to access, 
        process, transfer, or store data in the territory of that 
        country;
            (6) ensuring that the Internet continues to operate within 
        the successful multi-stakeholder governance model;
            (7) ensuring that provisions affecting intermediary 
        liability for Internet-enabled platforms, networks, and 
        services are consistent with the law of the United States;
            (8) ensuring digital trade policies contemplate various 
        business activities across all industrial sectors and allow for 
        future technological advancement; and
            (9) otherwise eliminating discriminatory treatment of 
        Internet-enabled commerce and digital trade.
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