Washington — The Computer & Communications Industry Association offered comments as part of the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual request for stakeholders to report trade barriers for the agency to include in its National Trade Estimate (NTE) report. USTR compiles a country-by-country list of egregious trade barriers in the NTE report, published in the spring. The NTE report is used to set priorities for USTR’s enforcement and negotiating agenda for the next year.
CCIA’s submission analyzes 76 countries and details 12 thematic areas where foreign policies and regulations restrict market access for U.S. technology companies and digital services exporters, and identifies 778 barriers to trade. These barriers include discriminatory platform regulations, data localization mandates, restrictions on cross-border data flows, digital services taxes, forced revenue transfers for news content, and emerging challenges to AI development. This year’s filing details the proliferation of new digital services taxes and amendments to copyright laws that constrain AI training efforts by U.S. suppliers. A 2-page summary can be found here, along with an interactive map, and one-pagers breaking down trade barriers region by region with breakdowns for the Americas, Europe, Asia & the Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa, Eurasia, and the United Kingdom.
This year’s filing also added three new categories of barriers, specifically focused on obstacles to the operation of low-earth orbit satellites and submarine cables, import barriers facing ICT goods and e-commerce, and discriminatory funding and investment obligations for audiovisual services.
USTR’s attention to these barriers supports U.S. jobs and the country’s prosperity, given the role digital trade plays in the US economy: accounting for $813.4 billion in digitally deliverable services exports globally in 2025, and driving a U.S. trade surplus in services of US$ 283.5 billion in 2025. CCIA estimates that in 2025 the U.S. Digital Economy was responsible for $3.3 trillion in growth, worth 10.6% of GDP, adding 9 million U.S. jobs worth $1.5 trillion in compensation for American workers.
The following can be attributed to CCIA’s Vice President for Digital Trade, Jonathan McHale:
“As the Administration looks to recalibrate trade relations and incentivize domestic production, it must not lose sight of barriers in foreign markets that threaten the success of our most innovative companies and the benefits they bring to the broader global economy. The fact that these barriers are growing in number, in ever more countries, underscores the need for sustained engagement with our trade partners to forge policies that can benefit both U.S. exporters and the markets they serve.”
