[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 123 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3020-S3021]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 842. Mr. YOUNG (for himself and Mr. Carper) submitted an amendment
intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 2226, to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2024 for military activities of the
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle G of title XII, add the following:
SEC. 1299L. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON DIGITAL TRADE AND THE
DIGITAL ECONOMY.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Over half of the world's population, totaling more than
5,000,000,000 people, use the internet.
(2) The digital economy encompasses the economic and social
activity from billions of online connections among people,
businesses, devices, and data as a result of the internet,
mobile technology, and the internet of things.
(3) The Bureau of Economic Analysis found that the digital
economy contributed nearly 10.3 percent of United States
gross domestic product and supported 8,000,000 United States
jobs in 2020.
(4) The digital sector added 1,400,000 new jobs between
2019 and 2022.
(5) United States jobs supported by the digital economy
have sustained annual wage growth at a rate of 5.9 percent
since 2010, as compared to a 4.2 percent for all jobs.
(6) In 2021, United States exports of digital services
surpassed $594,000,000,000, accounting for more than half of
all United States services exports and generating a digital
services trade surplus for the United States of
$262,300,000,000.
(7) Digital trade bolsters the digital economy by enabling
the sale of goods on the internet and the supply of online
services across borders and depends on the free flow of data
across borders to promote commerce, manufacturing, and
innovation.
(8) Digital trade has become increasingly vital to United
States workers and businesses of all sizes, including the
countless small and medium-sized enterprises that use digital
technology, data flows, and e-commerce to export goods and
services across the world.
(9) Digital trade has advanced entrepreneurship
opportunities for women, people of color, and individuals
from otherwise underrepresented backgrounds and enabled the
formation of innovative start-ups.
(10) International supply chains are becoming increasingly
digitized and data driven and businesses in a variety of
industries, such as construction, healthcare, transportation,
and aerospace, invested heavily in digital supply chain
technologies in 2020.
(11) United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai said,
``[T]here is no bright line separating digital trade from the
digital economy--or the `traditional' economy for that
matter. Nearly every aspect of our economy has been digitized
to some degree.''.
(12) Industries outside of the technology sector, such as
manufacturing and agriculture, are integrating digital
technology into their businesses in order to increase
efficiency, improve safety, reach new customers, and remain
globally competitive.
(13) The increasing reliance on digital technologies has
modernized legacy processes, accelerated workflows, increased
access to information and services, and strengthened security
in a variety of industries, leading to better health,
environmental, and safety outcomes.
(14) The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased uptake and
reliance on digital technologies, data flows, and e-commerce.
(15) Ninety percent of adults in the United States say that
the internet has been essential or important for them
personally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(16) United States families, workers, and business owners
have seen how vital access to the internet has been to daily
life, as work, education, medicine, and communication with
family and friends have shifted increasingly online.
(17) Many individuals and families, especially in rural and
Tribal communities, struggle to participate in the digital
economy because of a lack of access to a reliable internet
connection.
(18) New developments in technology must be deployed with
consideration to the unique access challenges of rural, urban
underserved, and vulnerable communities.
(19) Digital trade has the power to help level the playing
field and uplift those in traditionally unrepresented or
underrepresented communities.
(20) Countries have negotiated international rules
governing digital trade in various bilateral and plurilateral
agreements, but those rules remain fragmented, and no
multilateral agreement on digital trade exists within the
World Trade Organization.
(21) The United States, through free trade agreements or
other digital agreements, has been a leader in developing a
set of rules and standards on digital governance and e-
commerce that has helped allies and partners of the United
States unlock the full economic and social potential of
digital trade.
(22) Congress recognizes the need for agreements on digital
trade, as indicated by its support for a robust digital trade
chapter in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
(23) Other countries are operating under their own digital
rules, some of which are contrary to democratic values shared
by the United States and many allies and partners of the
United States.
(24) Those countries are attempting to advance their own
digital rules on a global scale.
(25) Examples of the plethora of nontariff barriers to
digital trade that have emerged around the globe include--
(A) overly restrictive data localization requirements and
limitations on cross border data flows that do not achieve
legitimate public policy objectives;
(B) intellectual property rights infringement;
(C) policies that make market access contingent on forced
technology transfers or voluntary transfers subject to
coercive terms;
(D) web filtering;
(E) economic espionage;
(F) cybercrime exposure; and
(G) government-directed theft of trade secrets.
(26) Certain countries are pursuing or have implemented
digital policies that unfairly discriminate against
innovative United States technology companies and United
States workers that create and deliver digital products and
services.
(27) The Government of the People's Republic of China is
currently advancing a model for digital governance and the
digital economy domestically and abroad through its Digital
Silk Road Initiative that permits censorship, surveillance,
human and worker rights abuses, forced technology transfers,
and data flow restrictions at the expense of human and worker
rights, privacy, the free flow of data, and an open internet.
(28) The 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of
the Department of State highlighted significant human rights
issues committed by the People's Republic of China in the
digital realm, including ``arbitrary interference with
privacy including pervasive and intrusive technical
surveillance and monitoring including the use of COVID-19
tracking apps for nonpublic-health purposes; punishment of
family members for offenses allegedly committed by an
individual; serious restrictions on free expression and
media, including physical attacks on and criminal prosecution
of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents,
petitioners, and others; serious restrictions on internet
freedom, including site blocking''.
(29) The United States discourages digital
authoritarianism, including practices that undermine human
and worker rights and result in other social and economic
coercion.
(30) Allies and trading partners of the United States in
the Indo-Pacific region have urged the United States to
deepen economic engagement in the region by negotiating rules
on digital trade and technology standards.
(31) The digital economy has provided new opportunities for
economic development, entrepreneurship, and growth in
developing countries around the world.
(32) Negotiating strong digital trade principles and
commitments with allies and partners across the globe enables
the United States to unite like-minded economies around
common standards and ensure that principles of democracy,
rule of law, freedom of speech, human and worker rights,
privacy, and a free and open internet are at the very core of
digital governance.
[[Page S3021]]
(33) United States leadership and substantive engagement is
necessary to ensure that global digital rules reflect United
States values so that workers are treated fairly, small
businesses can compete and win in the global economy, and
consumers are guaranteed the right to privacy and security.
(34) The United States supports rules that reduce digital
trade barriers, promote free expression and the free flow of
information, enhance privacy protections, protect sensitive
information, defend human and worker rights, prohibit forced
technology transfer, and promote digitally enabled commerce.
(35) The United States supports efforts to cooperate with
allies and trading partners to mitigate the risks of
cyberattacks, address potentially illegal or deceptive
business activities online, promote financial inclusion and
digital workforce skills, and develop rules to govern the use
of artificial intelligence and other emerging and future
technologies.
(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate
that--
(1) the United States should negotiate strong, inclusive,
forward-looking, and enforceable rules on digital trade and
the digital economy with like-minded countries as part of a
broader trade and economic strategy to address digital
barriers and ensure that the United States values of
democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, human and worker
rights, privacy, and a free and open internet are at the very
core of the digital world and advanced technology;
(2) in conducting such negotiations, the United States
must--
(A) pursue digital trade rules that--
(i) serve the best interests of workers, consumers, and
small and medium-sized enterprises;
(ii) empower United States workers;
(iii) fuel wage growth; and
(iv) lead to materially positive economic outcomes for all
people in the United States;
(B) ensure that any future agreement prevents the adoption
of non-democratic, coercive, or overly restrictive policies
that would be obstacles to a free and open internet and harm
the ability of the e-commerce marketplace to continue to grow
and thrive;
(C) coordinate sufficient trade-related assistance to
ensure that developing countries can improve their capacity
and benefit from increased digital trade; and
(D) consult closely with all relevant stakeholders,
including workers, consumers, small and medium-sized
enterprises, civil society groups, and human rights
advocates; and
(3) with respect to any negotiations for an agreement
facilitating digital trade, the United States Trade
Representative and the heads of other relevant Federal
agencies must consult closely and on a timely basis with
Congress.
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