On Tuesday, Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) took part in a Ways and Means Trade subcommittee hearing focused on trade policy and its influence on American innovation and technology leadership. During the session, Miller addressed issues related to discriminatory practices against U.S. tech firms in international trade agreements.
Miller opened her remarks by referencing actions taken during the Trump Administration to prevent discrimination against U.S. technology companies in bilateral trade deals. She questioned Nigel Cory, Director of Crowell Global Advisors, about ongoing concerns regarding South Korea’s treatment of American firms.
“Thank you, Chairman Smith for hosting this hearing today and your leadership on digital trade issues. I also want to thank the witnesses for being here today.
President Trump is making historic strides to ensure American dominance in the digital trade sector. For the first time ever, countries are specifically agreeing not to discriminate against U.S. tech firms in the bilateral trade deals negotiated by President Trump.
This is a welcome change after the Biden Administration abandoned the digital trade sector, which opened the door for other nations to impose discriminatory taxes and regulations upon American digital trade firms.
It is duly important that Congress ensures that these agreements are enforced as other countries continue attempts to stifle the free flow of digital trade.
This is most apparent in South Korea, where the National Assembly continues to advance legislation that targets U.S. companies, including a recently passed censorship bill, and recently launched a political witch hunt against two American executives.
Mr. Cory, do you believe that the recent actions taken by Korea is meant to squeeze American firms out of the Korean market and does it raise national security concerns? How should Congress address these issues?” asked Congresswoman Miller.
Cory responded: “Thank you, Congresswoman Miller, and I appreciate your leadership on these issues as it relates to digital trade and Korea.
Korea should be one of the United States’ closest digital trade allies. Yet it has a frustrating list of issues that make life hard for U.S. firms, and it continues to add to them. As you mentioned, there’s a network bill that they’ve proposed which may be problematic for U.S. firms, and there’s a proposed platform fairness bill as well, which also could make things worse as it relates to what the KFTC, the Korean Fair Trade Commission does as it relates to U.S. firms. And so there’s ongoing frustration that things in Korea don’t get easier and better despite KORUS’ long existence and the range of rules within it and the pressure born there.
And so I think it’s a matter of keeping a close eye on it and keeping pressure on the administration to turn the initial commitments they got with Korea into real, tangible, enforceable rules there and ensuring that, like the EU, they don’t add new barriers to it after the fact. And so it’s going to be ongoing scrutiny, which is another key role for Congress to ensure that trading partners don’t try and add to it once they’ve got a deal done and they think the limelight moves on.”
Miller then shifted focus toward similar challenges posed by European Union policies affecting U.S.-based technology companies:
“Similarly, I am concerned that the European Union is not upholding their commitment to not discriminate against U.S. firms.
Despite agreeing to address unjustified digital trade barriers in the US-EU agreement, the EU has taken discriminatory actions that are estimated to cost U.S. companies up to $97.6 billion dollars annually in compliance costs, revenue losses, and financial penalties.
What’s even more troubling is that this is not occurring in a vacuum. EU regulators appear to be actively campaigning globally for our trading partners to replicate their approach. Countries like Brazil, Australia, and the UK have all adopted or are actively considering copycat versions of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and other EU policies.
Mr. Cory, other than financial burden these actions put on U.S companies how do they threaten US innovation & leadership in digital sector?” asked Congresswoman Miller.
Cory replied: “The contagion of these DMA style status based ex-ante regulations is that it will inevitably lead US’s leading digital firms mostly American—to essentially redesign products & services jurisdiction by jurisdiction Instead of setting system once & working around edges DMA regime systems require them re-engineer some way or another jurisdiction after jurisdiction
And so means makes obviously operations much harder It makes much harder develop new products roll them out So you’ll see product delays less innovation [as] by product less trade That’s just with what we’re seeing at moment If contagion spreads more jurisdictions operational burden puts how engineer systems how come up new innovations deploy those innovations only gets harder
Lastly but not least what also will lead US firms facing growing range punitive investigations increasingly large fines It’s been bad enough we see this Europe but if starts happening similar degree multiple markets then becomes really problematic.”
Carol Miller represents West Virginia’s 1st district in Congress since 2019 after serving over ten years in West Virginia’s House of Delegates.
She was born in Columbus Ohio in 1950,
graduated from Columbia College,
South Carolina,
and currently resides
in Huntington.
